Is Toby injured on the eve of the WC?

[Stensol]

Sorry if this is just gossip, but Swedish TV quickly stated on Tuesday (I think it was) in their nightly sports wrap-up that Toby Stevenson had injured his leg in training. Could be either the quad or hamstring, don't know for sure since the Swedish word translates to "upper leg" only, and they didn't elaborate on if it was the "back" or the "front".

Can anyone confirm this?

This all may sound strange, but Patrik Kristiansson is getting a lot of press here recently, and the fact that Hysong and Stevenson have been training with Patrik for several weeks means that they get covered a bit, as well. Toby and Nick had been in Ã…land at the Swedish national team's pre-WC camp this past week training with Patrik and Miro Zalar. Kind of interesting to see nationwide coverage of a practice session, with the commentator stating that "Patrik cleared 5.65 with lots of room over the bar and then barely grazed a latex crossbar at 5.80". Then they mention Toby's alleged injury and move right on to the weather forecast. Crazy!

[vaultmd]

Wow! Miro is still jumping? Haven't seen him in 20 years.

[Stensol]

Miro is Patrik's coach and appears to be around when Toby and Nick are training with Patrik.

That's what I meant. Now back to the question: Is Toby good to go in Helsinki? I sure hope so!

[Stensol]

I'm watching the men's WC qualifying on TV right now. Pretty chaotic with the swirling winds and the broken upright. While officials focused on fixing group B's broken upright and figuring out what to do in the meantime with the group B jumpers, the broadcast was a bit spotty on what was going on in group A. When they said that group A was finished and that it was decided that all who cleared 5.60 (5 from that group) would go to the final, I was thinking, "But they never showed Toby take a jump. I see him down on the infield with his competition gear on. Did I miss it?"

Went quickly onto Eurosport's website and found this text:

11:57 Olympic pole vault silver medalist Toby Stevenson has pulled out of the Helsinki World Championships just moments before qualifying started

I'm guessing the leg injury was too much as Toby warmed up. Hope we get some reports soon as to what the problem actually is.

Hang in there, Toby!

[PVPhD]

I found this statement on the Eurosport website:

"Toby Stevenson out

The Olympic silver medalist at Athens in 2004, Toby Stevenson, did not start in the pole vault, an event that was hampered today by technical difficulties.

The 28-year old American did not attempt to height in the event and has been plagued by hamstring problems."

Bummer for Toby!!

Nick Hysong has qualified for the finals - five vaulters from group A advanced to the finals. Meanwhile the technical problems with the equipment have delayed the jumping by group B - so no news yet about Brad Walker.

[LHSpolevault]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO toby!!!

[TVVAcoach]

Found this on West Coast news...Stanford's Stevenson Drops Out Of Worlds Pole Vault
http://www.ktvu.com/sports/4828305/detail.html

[Stensol]

OK, now we know. There's another thread here called "STEVENSON WITHDRAWS FROM POLE VAULT EVENT" with some details, including the following from an LA Times article (same AP story as the link in the previous post here):

Olympic silver medalist Toby Stevenson withdrew from the world championship pole vault qualifying Tuesday with a hamstring injury...Stevenson took a pair of warmup runs, then decided not to risk worsening the injury, which occurred during training with the Swedish team a week ago.

"It's my takeoff leg and I wasn't going to get a chance to compete at 100 percent," Stevenson said, "and that's all I do. I go all out every time."

Stevenson said the injury was mild and that in four or five days he would be back at full strength.

"I was testing it about half of what I would have jumped on it, and I was feeling it, so I know I would have gone out and maybe exploded it, I don't know," he said. "Right now it's super small and I'll be ready for them all. I've got a lot of meets lined up and I'll be ready for them all. But it's a hard pill to swallow that I had to sacrifice this one."

Let's hope that Toby can get back to full strength ASAP!