Tyson Gay update

BEIJING -- There hasn't been much Tyson Gay news since the U.S. sprint star pulled up with a leg cramp and hamstring strain in the July 5 quarterfinals of the 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Gay said then that the injury would not stop him from competing at the Olympics in the 100, which he had won a week earlier at the trials.

But he pulled out of a scheduled July 25 race in England, saying in a statement he did not want to risk pushing the envelope and jeopardizing his OIympic participation.

This is what else I know:

*Gay's coach, Jon Drummond, sent me an e-mail Sunday saying that the runner has been "training full go for two weeks.''

*Despite the injury, Gay stuck with his long-held plan to leave for Europe a few days after the trials and train there until moving on to China, where he is expected to arrive later this week.

*The one addition to the plan because of the injury involved consultation with Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfarth, the team doctor for the Bayern Munich soccer team, who has helped the likes of marathon world champion Paula Radcliffe, golfer Jose Maria Olazabal and soccer star Jurgen Klinsmann overcome sports injuries. Muller-Wohlfarth has treated injuries with such unusual substances as the gel from a coxcomb and an extract of calves' blood.

(Jamaica's Asafa Powell, one of the leading contenders for the 2008 gold in the 100, also visited the Bayern doctor, known as a miracle worker, after a torn groin muscle in 2005, but not even Muller-Wohlfarth could cure him in time for the world championships barely two weeks later.)

*Although he will have gone without a race for nearly six weeks, Gay should be able to use the first two rounds of the Olympic 100 to ease back into competition -- provided, of course, he doesn't ease up too early the way he did in the first round of the Olympic trials.  Then he had to step on the gas again to assure advancing to the second round.

*If Gay is back to full fitness for the final, what a race it will be among him, Powell and Usain Bolt. It would feature the reigning world champion (Gay), the reigning world record-holder (Bolt) and the man whose record Bolt broke (Powell). 

There never has been an Olympic 100 confrontation involving three men with such credentials.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Tyson Gay after suffering an injury during the men's 200-meter quarterfinals at the U.S. Olympic trials July 5. Credit: Paul Buck/EPA

Comments

[bo]

NO TIME FOR COMMENTS. TYSON MUST RUN. THE ENTIRE NATION IS WITH HIM. HE HAS A STRONG CHANCE TO WIN BUT ASAFA AND USIAN ARE JUST AS DANGEROUS.

A

[Donna, Kingston Jamaica]

For years our athletes left Jamaica to train in the United States, having been recruited by colleges and universities and we are grateful for the help they gave us. This Olympic is soooo special because we are competing in 100m with Usain and Asafa who have been trained right here at home. Our little island against the super powers and all the advantages that bring. We hope they will do us proud, whether they win or lose.