David Rudisha, 800m world record holder is set to miss out on next month’s World Athletics Championships through injury.
Through his Twitter, Rudisha expressed his disappointment on missing out on the event that will run from 4 to 13th August in London.
Rudisha’s absence is set to deprive the London championships of one of the sport’s biggest stars, who is the only person to ever run under one minute 41 seconds for the event.
He retained his Olympic title in Rio last summer and would also have been the defending world champion in London, having won his second world title in Beijing two years ago.
In an interview with CGTN’s Celestine Karoney last week, he expressed how “excited” he was to return to London, where he set the 800m world record of one minute 40.91 seconds five years ago.
Rudisha is ranked only 19th in the world this year and would have been bidding for a third successive gold medal at the World Athletics Championships.
Fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Korir and Botswana’s Nijel Amos are expected to battle for the gold in Rudisha’s absence.
