World champion Thiam a doubt for world champs

BRUSSELS : Double world and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam is a doubt for this month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, having pulled out of the Belgian championship at the weekend and still to confirm her entry, the Belgian athletics federation said.

Thiam has been struggling with her Achilles tendon and missed recent Diamond League meetings in Monaco and London, and pulled out after two events at last weekend's Belgian Championships.

Belgian Athletics confirmed that Thiam's participation is uncertain while her coach Michael Van der Plaetsen told Le Soir newspaper: "It remains to be seen how her tendons will react to the upcoming intensive training sessions. Tendonitis never comes at the right time. If you don't slow down, things could get worse."

The 28-year-old is the defending champion in the heptathlon in Budapest, where the championships are being hosted from Aug. 19-27. Last year in Eugene she won her second world title and also won in London in 2017.

In March, Thiam, who won Olympic gold at Rio in 2016 and Tokyo five years later, broke the pentathlon world record with 5,055 points at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Istanbul in March.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Lincoln Feast)