Phillips Idowu withdraws from European Team Championships

World triple jump champion Phillips Idowu will miss the European Team Championships in Stockholm after pulling out of the event, UK Athletics have confirmed.

The BBC reports that no reason has been given for the 32-year-old's withdrawal. A statement providing more information on his absence is set to be provided at the pre-tournament press conference on Friday.

Idowu has been replaced in the squad by Kolo Adedoyin.

Idowu, who is set to defend his world title in South Korea later this year, has missed Great Britain's last two tournaments: the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the World Indoor Championships in Paris.

The Londoner received an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List last weekend and beat his major rivals to take victory in Saturday's Diamond League meeting in New York.

 

From Sporting life

"I told them a good few days before I flew out to the Diamond League meeting in New York and even before the team was announced I knew I was going to be selected but was told not to say anything about not competing until the official press release had gone out.

"The European Team Championships, when it fell, would have meant that I'd be doing four competitions within four weeks and it's a long season."

He added: "I was given flight details even though I said on a number of occasions I'm not going to compete. That seems to have [been] lost somewhere.

"Whether Charles picked up the messages or not - that's got nothing to do with me, that's due to his staff.


Sounds like Athletics administration is as carp as it was when I was competing, 35 years ago