Tyson Gay falls in 200m heat

Sports Columnist

July 5, 2008 12:14 PM PT

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EUGENE, Ore. -- World champion Tyson Gay has fallen in the 200-meter quaterfinals heat and appears injured.

The trials’ 100-meters champion could not finish the race after falling. Running out of Lane 7, he stumbled, and then pulled up and went down to the track in a heap, clutching his left leg. He was carried off the track for medical attention.

‘I saw him pull up and something flew my way,’ said Damein White, who was running in Lane 6. ‘I just tried to keep going.’

What flew White’s way was Gay’s number that had been attached to his back.

Walter Dix, who won his heat in 20.56 seconds, said he was aware of what happened to Gay. ‘Hopefully it was a minor injury and we’ll get him back for the Olympics,’ Dix said.

-- Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.