Women's 400m gold medallist Cathy Freeman (© © Allsport)
The Olympic 400m gold medallist Cathy Freeman will announce today that she is withdrawing from the Telstra Australian athletics championships, which start in Brisbane on Thursday.
The women's 400m final at 9.03pm on Friday would have been the emotional heart piece of the championships.
Since the nationals double as the trials for Australia's team to Manchester in July, Freeman's untimely injury means she will throw herself at the mercy of the selectors.
Nobody in the Freeman camp was available for comment last night, but it is understood a nerve irritation in her back was only late yesterday diagnosed as pain caused by a ``stress reaction'' in her femur.
A stress reaction is the precursor to a fracture and Freeman's decision to withdraw from the nationals is a season-saving option, if not a career-saver.
The bone should take about six weeks off weight-bearing activities to heal and during that time she can continue training in a swimming pool, on a bicycle and doing selective exercises in the weights gym.
Even if the selectors take the hard line and leave her out of the Games team, it is expected Freeman, 29, will push ahead with her comeback which began on November 1 after a 14-month sabbatical.
The stress reaction is almost certainly an over-use injury coming as a consequence of doing too much training in too short a time-span, as she hurried to shed 11kg and get ready to race in the nationals.
Freeman has one 400m run which bettered the Games B-qualifying time (53.10sec), but she needed two B-marks - or one A-mark (51.90sec) – to satisfy Athletics Australia's selection criteria.
Keith Connor, Australia's head coach who will chair the selection committee meetings during the nationals, has problems with a number of stars.
They include world pole vault champion Dmitri Markov, who has missed the entire domestic season with a hamstring injury.
Connor said last night: "The situation of any athlete who has been injured will be assessed after the trials. There are all sorts of options. But basically we want any fit, healthy well-performing athlete in our team.''
Connor has problems also with Olympic long jump silver medallist Jai Taurima, who has damaged his hamstring twice this season and has yet to register even a B-qualifying performance.
But Connor made it clear that Taurima would be competing for his Games spot in Sunday's long jump final, so it may be difficult for the selectors to take a hard line with Taurima, yet give Freeman dispensation.
Then again at least she has a B-qualifier in both the 400m and 200m this year, a remarkable achievement given such a long time out of competition following her magical 2000 Olympics.
The most sensible solution is to pick Freeman and Markov - and perhaps also Taurima - subject to them producing, say, two A-qualifying marks before the close of entries for the Games.
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) for the IAAF
