RALEIGH, North Carolina, June 8 (Reuters) – Former world champion Tyson Gay said he was unlikely to run the 200 metres at this month’s U.S. trials, effectively ending his chances of facing world record holder Usain Bolt over the distance at this year’s world championships in South Korea.

Although the American said he was still planning to run the 100m at the U.S trials and hoped to face Bolt at the worlds, he said he was resigned to skipping the 200m because of fitness concerns.

“It’s about 90 percent (that he will miss the 200m),” he told Reuters Wednesday.

“I have honestly missed so much training this year because of my hip and everything, it is very difficult to say when I will run a 200.”

The world silver medalist, who ran the year’s fastest 100m when he clocked 9.79 seconds in a preliminary race in Florida last weekend, will face Jamaican training partner Steve Mullings at the New York Grand Prix on Saturday. Mullings is the season’s second-fastest sprinter, having run 9.80.

“I know how much training I have been missing,” Gay said.

“Some people think I may be playing games, but I don’t play games. I run with so much heart, I overcome pain.”

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – NFL players are hoping to be back on the training fields by the end of next month, a players association official said on Wednesday.

Pre-season training normally begins in July and although the players are still locked out because of the labor dispute, they remain hopeful a resolution can be reached.

“We don’t have a firm sense of cutoff dates because we don’t make the rules or set the schedule,” players association spokesman George Atallah told Reuters.

“The players’ hope is that the lockout is lifted in time for players to show up to camps on time.”

Under the terms of the league-imposed lockout, now in its third month, players are barred from contact with their teams so dozens of players are working out on their own in locations across the country.

Some owners have hinted that a new collective bargaining agreement would be needed by July 4 for a full schedule of activities, including training camps and preseason games, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league had a range of contingency plans in case there was no agreement.

DELAY COSTLY

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – A decision on a contentious Olympic rule that could impact on dozens of athletes wanting to compete in the 2012 London Games is expected within the next four months, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Wednesday.

IOC Rule 45, adopted in 2008, currently bars any athlete who receives a doping sanction of greater than six months from competing at the next Olympic Games.

The IOC has maintained the rule is not a sanction but an issue of eligibility and that it has the right to put conditions on participation in the Olympics.

But opponents of the rule, which include the U.S. Olympic Committee, say it violates the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code because it creates a second penalty for athletes who have already served their time.

The IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee have asked CAS to determine the validity of the rule and the court said it would hold a hearing on August 17 with a verdict expected by the end of September.

Banned U.S. Olympic 400 meters champion LaShawn Merritt is among those who could have their eligibility for the London Games impacted by the CAS decision.

Merritt received a 21-month suspension after testing positive in 2009 and 2010 for a banned substance he said was found in a male enhancement product.

RALEIGH, North Carolina, June 8 (Reuters) – A decision on a contentious Olympic rule that could impact on dozens of athletes wanting to compete in the 2012 London Games is expected within the next four months, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Wednesday.

IOC Rule 45, adopted in 2008, currently bars any athlete who receives a doping sanction of greater than six months from competing at the next Olympic Games.

The IOC has maintained the rule is not a sanction but an issue of eligibility and that it has the right to put conditions on participation in the Olympics.

But opponents of the rule, which include the U.S. Olympic Committee, say it violates the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code because it creates a second penalty for athletes who have already served their time.

The IOC and the U.S. Olympic Commiteee have asked CAS to determine the validity of the rule and the court said it would hold a hearing on August 17 with a verdict expected by the end of September.

Banned U.S. Olympic 400 metres champion LaShawn Merritt is among those who could have their eligibility for the London Games impacted by the CAS decision.

Merritt received a 21-month suspension after testing positive in 2009 and 2010 for a banned substance he said was found in a male enhancement product.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – American David Oliver avenged a May loss to former Olympic and world champion Liu Xiang of China with a 2011-leading 12.94 seconds in the 110 meters hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League on Saturday.

Liu finished second in 13.00 seconds.

“I took care of business at the start like I didn’t do (in the loss) in Shanghai,” Oliver said.

Liu, the former world record holder, appeared to take advantage of his new starting technique to take the early lead over Oliver.

By the third hurdle, however, the American record holder was in command.

Liu, who his coach says still feels foot pain from a 2008 surgery, had beaten Oliver by clocking 13.07 seconds in Shanghai to snap the American’s 18-meeting win streak.

“I am happy with my time,” Liu said, but he expressed disappointment with his finish. “My foot is a little sore.”

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – European champion Mo Farah shocked a world-class 10,000 metres field with a continental record 26 minutes, 46.57 seconds for a dramatic win at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting on Friday.

Farah clipped nearly six seconds off Belgian Mohammed Mourhit’s 1999 European mark of 26:52.30.

“I want a world medal and it shown here that if I keep working hard I will be in the mix,” said Farah, who now trains in Oregon with Alberto Salazar. His previous best was 27:28.86.

“I just set back and worked my way through,” said the 28-year-old who took the lead with three laps to go and pushed home hard for the surprising win.

“I knew I had a chance for the record.”

He beat top-ranked Eithiopian Imane Merga by more than 10 metres Merga clocked 26:48.35 with Josphat Bett third in 26:48.99.

Kenyan world champion Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s 5,000 metres in 14:33.96, the fastest time ever in America.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – Foot pain will keep China’s former Olympic champion Liu Xiang from running in Europe ahead of the world championships, his coach said on Friday.

The decision is part of a cautious build-up to the 2012 London Olympics for the former world record holder, who had Achilles surgery in 2008.

“Every time after hard training, he still feels a little bit of reaction,” Sun Haiping told reporters.

“His heel is okay, just fine, but I really do not want more meets to make it worse. He still needs to do some rehab training every day.”

Liu will emphasize recovery and maintaining his fitness this season, Sun said. “Next year we will do more meets,” he added.

After competing in Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting, the the 2005 world champion will do perhaps one more meeting in Asia before the world championships in August in Daegu, South Korea, the coach said.

He and American David Oliver, two of the fastest hurdlers of all-time, will clash for the second time in less than a month at the Oregon meeting.

EUGENE, Oregon, June 3 (Reuters) – Foot pain will keep China’s former Olympic champion Liu Xiang from running in Europe ahead of the world championships, his coach said on Friday.

The decision is part of a cautious build-up to the 2012 London Olympics for the former world record holder, who had Achilles surgery in 2008.

“Every time after hard training, he still feels a little bit of reaction,” Sun Haiping told reporters.

“His heel is okay, just fine, but I really do not want more meets to make it worse. He still needs to do some rehab training every day.”

Liu will emphasize recovery and maintaining his fitness this season, Sun said. “Next year we will do more meets,” he added.

After competing in Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting, the the 2005 world champion will do perhaps one more meeting in Asia before the world championships in August in Daegu, South Korea, the coach said.

He and American David Oliver, two of the fastest hurdlers of all-time, will clash for the second time in less than a month at the Oregon meeting.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – South African runner Caster Semenya seems to finally be enjoying life again after a tumultuous two years in which the high of world championship glory was offset by the low of questions over her gender.

As she sat in a hotel meeting room on a rainy Thursday afternoon, the 800 metres world champion was able to reveal a lighter side to her character after months of intense scrutiny and doubts about her femininity

“I can do anything I want in any sport except swimming,” the 20-year-old University of Pretoria student told Reuters. “It’s been a long time since I swam.”

For parts of 2009 and 2010, it was also a long time between competitive running for Semenya.

An International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) gender investigation had kept her off the track for more than 10 months before she was cleared to compete again in July 2010.

“I would not call it a nightmare because I survived,” Semenya said of the forced hiatus. “But seeing other people running when I wasn’t was a little bit frustrating.”

It would not have destroyed her never to have competed again, Semenya said, but it would have been depressing.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – Disgraced Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin will remain barred from major European races despite being invited to this weekend’s Diamond League meeting in the United States, European officials told Reuters on Thursday.

Gatlin, who won the 100 metres gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was suspended for four years after a positive doping test in 2006, was cleared for his first major race since the ban when he was offered a spot in Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.

But the American’s hopes of competing in Europe appear doomed after officials said they were not planning to change their stand against inviting athletes who had served long doping terms.

“Euromeetings, the organisation representing Europe’s top athletics meetings, will continue to recommend that members do not invite athletes who we believe causes disrepute to our meetings and our sport,” Rajne Soderberg, the group’s president and organiser of the Stockholm Diamond League meeting, said in an email.

Patrick Magyar, the organizer of the Zurich meet, offered a similar view.

“Eugene can invite who they want and we will do the same,” Magyar, vice chairman of the Diamond League, told Reuters via email.

Tom Jordan, the director of the Prefontaine Classic, said the 29-year-old Gatlin had been invited because he had served his penalty.