World champion sprinter Justin Gatlin limps out of Zagreb race, finishes fourth as World Championships loom

Paris: World champion sprinter Justin Gatlin ended a 100m race limping and holding his left thigh just three weeks ahead of the defence of his title at the Doha world championships. [caption id=“attachment_7282991” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Justin Gatlin[/caption] In the race at Croatian capital Zagreb, the 37-year-old Gatlin suddenly winced in pain around the 80m mark, finished fourth with a time of 10.29sec and left the track supported by a fellow athlete. Another American Michael Rodgers won the race with a wind-assisted 10.04sec time. The veteran sprinter, the 2004 Olympic 100m gold medallist who served a doping ban between 2006-10, is a long-standing fixture on the track who continues to show his enduring prowess. Gatlin won world gold in London in 2017 ahead of fellow American Christian Coleman — in the spotlight after charges were dropped against him for missing three drugs tests — and now-retired Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt. Not only is Gatlin plotting to defend his title in Doha, but he is using that as a handy warm-up for a fourth Olympic Games campaign at Tokyo 2020.