Lobban and Clyne edge closer
Canadian sprinter Andre de Grasse is out of the World Championships after tearing a hamstring.
The 22-year-old was considered one of Usain Bolt’s main challengers for the 100 metres title on the Jamaican’s track swansong in London.
De Grasse won 200m silver, 100m bronze and 4x100m relay bronze at last year’s Olympics and ran a wind-assisted 9.69 seconds in Stockholm in June. He said: “Earlier this week in practice, I suffered a hamstring tear that has forced me to withdraw from the World Championships.
“Injuries are a part of the sport, and the timing of this one is especially unfortunate.
“While I’m in the best shape of my life and extremely disappointed that I will not have the chance to compete for my country in London, I can’t forget or be ungrateful for the successes that I’ve been blessed with up to this point in my career.
“I’ll be back stronger and faster than ever.”
De Grasse’s manager Paul Doyle said that MRI scans suggested that the sprinter would be out for around four to six weeks.
His injury prevents a spicy clash with Bolt after De Grasse’s coach Stuart Mcmillan had claimed the Jamaican denied his rival entry into the 100m field at a Diamond League meeting in Monaco – a charge the eight-time Olympic gold medallist denied.
Asked at a London press conference on Tuesday who might fill his shoes after he retires, Bolt replied: “I’m not going down that road. The last guy I said was going to be great disrespected me.” The comment was seen as a reference to De Grasse, who pushed Bolt to the line in the Olympic 200m semifinals, eliciting a fingerwag from the greatest sprinter in history. Greg Lobban and Alan Clyne edged closer to a successful title defence as the top seeds from Inverness eased through to today’s semi-finals at the World Doubles Championships in Manchester.
They had been untroubled in winning all three group matches in two straight games, and looked equally impressive as they disposed of Welsh seventh seeds Joel Makin and Peter Creed 11-4, 11-7.
Scottish champions Doug Kempsell and Kevin Moran missed out on a last eight spot by losing to English fifth seeds James Willstrop and Declan James, but Kempsell is still in title contention in the mixed doubles after he and Lisa Aitkenextendedtheirwinning run to four matches.
The Scots stunned top seeds anddefendingchampionsjoelle King and Paul Coll from New Zealand on Wednesday, and yesterday completed a clean sweep in Pool A.
Aitken and Kempsell topped the group after beating South Africans Milnay Louw and Christo Potgieter 11-5, 11-8, and now face Welsh pairing Tesni Evans and Peter Creed in this morning’s quarter-finals.
“We’d already qualified, but we wanted to send a message to the other teams,” said Aitken. “Everybody is looking at us in a different way now and taking us more seriously.”
Kempsell added: “We’re feeling good, playing some very good squash and we’re high on confidence. We’re looking to come home with a medal.”