Hamstring dashes Devers’ dream
27 September 2000 – Since 1988, American sprinter and hurdler Gail Devers has been missing one thing from her trophy cupboard: an Olympic gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles.
This evening, her dream of taking that gold in Sydney were dashed as she pulled up off the fourth hurdle in the semi-finals with a hamstring injury that has been troubling her since the IAAF Golden League meeting in Brussels at the end of August.
"I had some pain at Brussels," says Devers," so I went to have an MRI, which showed that I had a partial tear in my left hamstring. We thought that it would probably heal OK, so I took a couple of weeks off before resuming training for Sydney.
"I didn’t feel too bad in the first round," she continues, " so I really believed that I could go on. Then in the second round, the pain was worse.
"Tonight I was straining more and more with each hurdle until I was coming off the fourth hurdle and going to the fifth and I just had to pull up."
Can this be an Olympic jinx for Devers. At her last appearance at an Olympics in the event, in Barcelona 1992, she was in the lead when she crashed to the ground after catching the last hurdle with her training leg and made a spectacular fall that effectively put her out of the race. In Atlanta she managed a fourth place finish. 2000 was to have been her year.
Devers notched up five successes in the IAAF Golden League to qualify for a share of the 50kg of gold in the jackpot and then had to miss the final meeting of the series with her hamstring injury. She must compete at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Doha on 5 October to ensure her jackpot share.
If Devers’ remains sidelined for the rest of the Olympics, her absence could also jeopardise a USA 4x100 relay team that is already weakened by the withdrawal through injury of Inger Miller.
And that, by deduction, is also going top threaten the chances of American Track star Marion Jones achieving her ambitious aim of taking home five gold medals from Sydney.
Devers hasn’t ruled out completely the possibility that she may be fit enough to compete in the relays, but she stresses that it will only be if she is on top form: "I will only do the relay if I am 110%. This is the Olympics and nothing but the best performance will do.
"And before you ask it again," she forces a smile, "I have no intention of retiring. No way!
"All that I ask for is an injury free season. My plan is definitely to come back and run next year. Exactly when is out of my hands, it’s up to God and my doctors."
