BAHRAIN'S Rashid Ramzi is unlikely to defend his men's 800m world title at this year's World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, a source at the Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) revealed yesterday.
The BAA official said that Ramzi will be officially withdrawn from the half-mile during tomorrow's technical meeting in Osaka at 12.30pm Bahrain time. The meeting will finalise the start lists of each event (heats and finals) in the worlds, which begin on Saturday.
Ramzi's withdrawal leaves the door open for a new world champion in the 800m, and means that he will only defend his 1,500m title in Osaka.
Ramzi won both titles during the previous worlds in Helsinki, Finland, in 2005. He became the first-ever athlete in history to win both middle-distance events in the same world championships, and also the first Bahraini to win any medal in the biennial International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) event.
"Rashid will only be running the 1,500m," the source told the GDN. "We think that it is best for him to concentrate on a single event, especially since he has been bothered by injury for most of the year.
"A few of our other athletes have also qualified for two events in Osaka, but they will all be running in just one to give them better focus on winning a medal."
Ramzi has yet to run in a competitive race this year because of the injury to his left foot. He had only begun training for Osaka a few weeks ago.
Ramzi's coach Khalid Boulami has conducted test-runs for the 27-year-old during his training camp in Morocco.
Ramzi qualified for the 800m with a time of one minute 44.05 seconds while running in Madrid in July last year. The championships entry standard for the meet is 1:45.40. For the 1,500m, his qualifying mark was 3:29.14 which he achieved in Rome during the same month. His mark is the current 1,500m Asian record, beating the entry standard of 3:36.60.
Bahrain's other athletes who have qualified for two events are Maryam Yusuf Jamal, Ruqaya Al Ghasra, Belal Mansoor Ali and Youssef Saad Kamel.
Maryam and Belal will only be running in the 1,500m (both likely to withdraw from their 800m races), Ruqaya in the 200m (drop 100m race) and Kamel in the 800m (pull out from 1,500m event).
