JAKE WIGHTMAN SET TO MISS OUT ON OLYMPIC SELECTION IN THE 1,500M AFTER WITHDRAWING FROM BRITISH TRIALS WITH A CALF INJURY... BUT 2022 WORLD CHAMPION COULD STILL EARN DISCRETIONARY PLACE TO RUN 800M EVENT IN PARIS
- UK Athletics has announced that Jake Wightman will not compete this weekend
- The middle distance runner, 29, needed to finish in the top two in Manchester
- Wightman memorably won gold in the 1,500m at the 2022 World Championships
Jake Wightman faces missing out on Olympic selection in the 1,500metres after he withdrew from this weekend’s British trials with a calf injury.
The 29-year-old memorably won gold in the event at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022.
But Wightman needed to finish in the top two in the 1,500m in Manchester on Sunday to secure his place in Paris, meaning his fate is now out of his hands.
The Scottish runner could still be handed a discretionary place to run the 800m at the Olympics, the event he won a European silver medal in two years ago.
But in the 1,500m, Wightman’s team-mate Josh Kerr is guaranteed the discretionary spot after winning the world title last year, with the other two places to be decided by the results at the trials.
If the top two finishers in Sunday’s 1,500m final at the UK Championships have hit the Olympic qualification time this season, Wightman’s hopes of running the distance in Paris are over.
George Mills and Neil Gourley are the two men in this weekend’s 1,500m field who already have the Olympic standard, so if they were to come first and second, it would knock Wightman out of contention.
In the 800m, however, Wightman has the fastest time by any Brit this year.
Ben Pattison, the world bronze medallist, and Elliot Giles also have the qualifying standard and can seal their places in Paris this weekend, which would leave Wightman hoping for the third selectors’ spot.
Following his famous 1,500m win in Eugene in 2022, Wightman was unable to defend his world title in Budapest last summer after a succession of injuries, which started when he fractured his foot jumping over hurdles in training last January.
He returned to the track after 13 months out in February, then won the 1500m at the New York Grand Prix in June.
Wightman had managed to stay injury-free this season, but UK Athletics announced on Friday that he had been ‘granted a medical exemption’ from competing this weekend ‘due to a minor calf injury’.
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