Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson will miss August’s World Track and Field Championships after injuring her left wrist in a race fall on June 4 and requiring surgery.
“When I got onto the stretcher, when they were taking me off, my hand started going blue, so I was screaming even more because I thought that they were going to have to amputate,” Pearson said, laughing, on Australia’s Channel Ten. “That was my first thought -- I’m going to have to go the Paralympics now.”
Pearson, 28, won 2012 Olympic gold in an Olympic record 12.35 seconds over 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper-Nelson and another American, Kellie Wells. She captured silver behind Harper-Nelson at the Beijing Games.
Pearson also took gold and silver at the last two World Championships and is the fifth fastest woman of all time in the event, with a personal best of 12.28.
Pearson’s best this year was 12.59, ranking sixth in the world.
This year’s World Championships could be dominated by Americans, with the reigning World champion Brianna Rollins earning an automatic spot in the field in Beijing.
She will be joined by the top three finishers at the U.S. Championships next week. The top contenders are the reigning Diamond League champion Harper-Nelson, the world No. 1 this year Jasmin Stowers and Sharika Nelvis, a winner at Diamond League meets the previous two weeks.
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