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Torn dream Hamstring injury derails Devers' hurdles run
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Gail Devers, favored to win the Olympic hurdles medal that has eluded her for so long, suddenly stopped midway through her semifinal Wednesday with a left hamstring tear and did not finish the race. It was a stunning development and the latest chapter in the hard-luck Olympic saga of Devers, of Alpharetta, Ga., who just missed out on medals at the 1992 and 1996 games. "I don't think luck has anything to do with track and field. I think it's skill," she said. "I'd say my skills were not good enough to keep me going tonight. And that's the end of the story." Devers has been one of the world's best hurdlers for the past decade but has never won a medal in an Olympic hurdles event. All three of her gold medals at the Barcelona and Atlanta games -- including two 100-meter titles -- came in sprints. Devers, a three-time world champion in the 100-meter hurdles, has said she might have retired in 1996 if she had won a hurdles medal at the Atlanta Games. She has long talked about her quest to finally win an Olympic medal in her favorite event. Devers was near the lead in the semifinal when she suddenly slowed between the fourth and fifth hurdles. She then ran into the fifth hurdle without trying to clear it, and came to a stop. She said she hurt her hamstring while winning a meet in Brussels on Aug. 25 and that an MRI taken before the Olympics revealed a partial tear.
Devers said she reinjured the hamstring while clearing the sixth hurdle in Monday's second-round race. "My aim was to make it to the final and give it my all until the leg falls off," she said. "Is this a jinx? Is this '92 all over again? No. I have the utmost faith and belief in God and my spirituality, and I know he had plans for me." Devers, who won hurdles world championships in 1993, 1995 and 1999 and set the U.S. record of 12.37 seconds at last year's world championships in Spain, made a heroic recovery from a serious illness just to compete in the 1992 Olympics. She did not compete in 1989 and 1990 because of Graves Disease, a thyroid abnormality that caused her feet to swell so much she was within days of having them amputated. The fastest semifinal time was posted 12.68 seconds by Gloria Alozie of Nigeria, whose fiance was killed when hit by a car in Sydney a few days before the games opened. Also advancing to the final was Melissa Morrison of the United States.
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