01 May 2018

Botswana’s 2012 Olympic silver medallist, Nijel Amos will be out of action for about six weeks after sustaining a calf injury, during the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia recently.

Batswana had high hopes on Amos hoping he will defend the title he won in 2014 in Glasgow, more especially after running his heat well finishing on position one with a time of 1:45:12.

However in the finals, the nation watched in disbelief as their ace runner was relegated to last position with 1:48.45 after dictating the pace of the race until the last metres, where he was attacked from both angles by his competitors.

Amos who is well known for his good sprint was helpless and those who know him better could easily tell that there was something wrong with the Marobela born athletes.

Indeed, he sustained an injury, the scan showed grade 3 tendon tear, which will rule him out for six weeks.

Amos said in an interview that it all started as a slight pain during one of his last preparatory sessions.

He said he took painkillers and kept on going as he thought he would manage with the pain.

He however said he then felt the pain during the heat warm-up session but he supported the leg with a tape.

“If you remember, I only ran one heat as there was no semi-final. So I had 58 hours rest between heats and final and so I thought the pain will be better, and our medical team did their best in attending me before the finals,” he said.

He said he led the race from the front, hoping that he would not feel the pain.

He however said he was currently in the United States of America where he was under close monitoring by his medical team. ENDS