THE SIDELINES : Injured High Jumper Back Home
Cuban high jump world record holder Javier Sotomayor has returned home from competing in Europe to receive treatment for a sore heel bone, the official Communist Party newspaper Granma reported today.
Granma said the 22-year-old athlete arrived back in Cuba on the weekend after a recurrence of the injury which had kept him out of competition for about eight months from September.
He was declared fit in May and had started competing in Europe.
“It’s an injury to the heel bone of his left jumping foot, in the same area as the last one. We don’t think it’s very serious,” Sotomayor’s doctor, Eduardo Gomez de la Cruz, told Granma.
The athlete was due to be treated at a Havana hospital.
A disappointed Sotomayor said he hoped to be able to recover in time to take part in the Goodwill Games in Seattle in mid-July. “It all depends on the injury,” he said.
Trainer Guillermo de la Torre said Sotomayor’s injury was caused by problems with his jumping shoes.
Sotomayor, who holds the world outdoor record of eight feet (2.44 meters), returned to competition May 12 when he won the Barrientos Memorial event in Havana.
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