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World-class sprinter Tyson Gay is unlikely to compete in the 200-meters in the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011.
He will instead focus on the 100-meters.
According to Reuters, Gay said he might not run in the 200 at this month’s U.S. trials and that would end any chance of him competing against world record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica in the world championships in August.
Gay’s decision is due to fitness concerns.
“It’s about 90 percent (that he will miss the 200-meters),” he told Reuters Wednesday.
“I have honestly missed so much training this year because of my hip and everything, it is very difficult to say when I will run a 200.”
The American sprinter ran the season’s fastest time clocking in at 9.79 seconds in his 100-meters heat at the National Training Center Sprint Series in Florida last weekend.
Steve Mullings of Jamaica is the second fastest man this year with a time of 9.80 second and world record holder Bolt has crossed the finish line in 9.91 twice this season.
Gay said he felt pain in his right foot before running in Manchester in May and it has worsened since his return to Florida.
“It’s been the whole right side of my body that has not been cooperating with me this season,” Gay said. “It is very disappointing. If anything changes in the next couple of weeks, that would be wonderful.”
Though Gay is likely to miss the 200-meters this season, he plans to run in both events at the London Olympics next year.
Gay won the 100- and 200-meter at the world championships in 2007 but Bolt won both events setting new records in the world championships in Berlin in 2009.
Two years ago Gay finished second in the 100-meters but pulled out of the 200 with a groin problem.
