Leg Injury Causes Greene to Pull Out

For more than two years, sprinter Maurice Greene has been the advertising face of the Goodwill Games in Australia, shown on billboards and in television commercials ready to burst from the starting blocks.

As it turns out, that’s about as close as he’ll get to running the 100-meter race. The marquee attraction and world record-holder pulled out of the event today and canceled all on-track engagements for the rest of the season because of a leg injury.

It is the second track and field withdrawal from the Games. Gabriela Szabo, the Olympic champion at 5,000 meters, injured a leg while competing in Brussels last weekend.

But Goodwill Games organizers--and the ticket-buying public in Brisbane--will miss Greene much more. The 27-year-old American was injured while winning his third consecutive world title at Edmonton, Canada, this month.

Greene said he reinjured his left quadriceps during a workout Monday.

“I felt a sharp pain in the quad,” he said in a telephone call from Los Angeles. “So I think it’s best for me not to compete .... I don’t want to go there and not put on the best show I can.”

In the opening swimming event Wednesday, Haley Cope held off a late charge by Olympic champion Inge de Bruijn to help the United States defeat Europe in the dual meet format.

The Australian men, led by world record-holders Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, had an easy win over the Americans on Wednesday.