French famous person decathlete Kevin Mayer pulled out of the world championships in Budapest on Friday as a result of harm.
The 31-year-old, who claimed the decathlon title for a second time in Eugene eventually 12 months’s championships, withdrew after finishing the 100m and the lengthy leap.
“I’ve been nursing a little injury on my achilles most of the season,” mentioned Mayer.
“It was OK until I was doing some training for the 400m and it started to feel really bad.
“And since then it has been loads of physio periods to offer me an opportunity to be in Budapest. But I’ve needed to cease earlier than the harm will get worse.”
Mayer’s decision to depart in order to tend his left leg further blights a depressing world championships for French national pride.
Athletes from the country – which hosts the Olympics next year – have failed to collect a single medal at the National Athletics Centre. That drought will continue until Saturday with no French competitors featuring in the four finals on Friday night.
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Mayer announced his promise when he won the world junior decathlon title in 2010. He followed that with the European junior crown in 2011. In his first Olympics in 2012, he finished in 15th.
However, silver came at the 2016 Olympics in Rio followed by a first world title in London in 2017.
In 2019 while defending his crown at the Doha world championships, Mayer, was in the lead after seven events when he withdrew just before the pole valut citing a problem with his achilles.
After another silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Mayer regained the world crown and had been among the favourites in Budapest.
“Of course I’m disenchanted,” Mayer lamented. “I like this sport. I like coaching and I like the competitors however I did not need to be in a foul means going into an Olympic 12 months.
“And when I felt that I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do in the long jump and the achilles was getting more and more painful, me and my coach decided that we should stop and prepare for what really matters which is next year’s Olympics in Paris.”
After three of the decathlon’s 10 occasions, Leo Neugebauer led the sector. The 23-year-old from Germany was 68 factors in entrance of Lindon Victor from Grenada and 76 factors forward of the Canadian Pierce Lepage.
Originally printed on RFI