Franfurt: Defending Olympic champion Thomas Rohler has pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics next month due to a back injury he suffered during training. The 29-year-old thus becomes the second high-profile javelin thrower after Estonian Magnus Kirt to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics.
The German has not sufficiently recovered from a back problem picked up in training: “I found it incredibly difficult to reject Tokyo. I weighed it carefully with my trainer, but in the end my health comes first,” Rohler said in a statement released by his team.
Rohler won gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 with a throw of 90.30m. However, he has been overtaken by compatriot Johannes Vetter, who has been constantly hitting above 90m recently. Rohler’s withdrawal leaves Vetter as the only athlete at the Tokyo Olympics with a 93m-plus record.
Vetter, who has a personal best of 97.76m, will have Jan Zelezny’s world record 98.48 in his sights. For Rohler, however, attention now turns to next year’s European Championships on home soil in Munich – where he is also the defending champion – and World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
“I want to practice my sport at a top level for a few more years,” he said. “If I took part in the Olympic Games, I would simply risk too much because of the back injury.” Rohler’s withdrawal also comes in as a blessing in disguise for Indian Neeraj Chopra, who got a taste of the Tokyo field at the Kuortane Grand Prix in Finland, where he took bronze behind Vetter and Keshorn Walcott.
