(June 28) – Olympics silver medalist Christine Mboma has returned to training, but the teen sprint star will not be ready in time to compete at next month’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Mboma has been out of competition since she suffered, what turned out to be a high thigh injury during a 100m race at the 2022 Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya on 7 May.
The 19-year-old had hoped to recover in time to challenge the rest of the world at the world championships, but although her coach Henk Botha revealed that the leg injury is almost healed and she’s back in training, the global meeting has come too soon for her.
“For now, it seems like the possibility of Commonwealth is there, but a no for World Champs,” Botha was quoted as telling New EraSport.
“We are starting training (Monday), and it’s like rehab training,” he added. “We will take it step by step. As far as the injury is concerned, it’s fairly healed but we will look at doing reconstruction in the off-season. That’s December, but there is a 50-50 call on that decision.”
According to the report, Mboma suffered a muscle tear on her upper left thigh during the race at the Kip Keino Classic, which was eventually won by four-time reigning world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who clocked a world-leading time of 10.67 seconds
Mboma, who finished second in the 200m at the Tokyo Games last summer behind Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, is ranked third in the world in the event this season with a time of 21.87 seconds.
After winning a silver medal at the Olympics last year, the Namibian speedster went on to dominate the World U20 Championships in Nairobi, in late August.
With Mboma unlikely to feature in Oregon this summer and Gabby Thomas failing to make the American team at the USATF national championships, it means the Olympic silver and bronze medal winners will not return for a rematch against Thompson-Herah.
The World Athletics Championships will take place at Hayward Field from 15-24 July, while the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdon, will run from 28 July through 8 August.
