Farah pulls out of Glasgow 2014

Olympic and world middle distance champion Mo Farah has withdrawn from England’s Commonwealth Games team, saying he was not fully fit following a recent illness.

The 31-year-old Farah, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles at the London Olympics and the world championships in Moscow last year, was preparing to run both distances in Glasgow.

But he said he had decided to remain at his training camp in Font Romeu in Switzerland to concentrate on being fit for next month’s European Championships in Zurich.

“The sickness I had two weeks ago was a big setback for me,” Farah said in an England team statement. “Training is getting better but I need another few weeks to get back to the level I was at in 2012 and 2013.”

No cricket

Cricket’s absence from CommonwealthGames will continue at least until the 2018 Games in Australia after the International Cricket Council (ICC) turned down an invitation from the governing body of the multi-sport event.

South Africa won the gold medal when cricket, in its 50-over format, made its only appearance at the quadrennial event featuring mostly former British colonies during the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games.

Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia, the chairman of the CommonwealthGames Federation, formally approached the ICC in 2012 to consider participating in the 2014 Glasgow Games, which got underway on Wednesday, and also the next one.

“There were discussions about the inclusion of men’s and women’s Twenty20 cricket in both the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games but neither of these came to fruition,” an ICC spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.

In time

Commonwealth Games shooting gold medallist Nur Ayuni Farhana Abdul Halim has been given a late reprieve to compete in Glasgow after her missing competition jacket was found and sent to her in Scotland.

Malaysian Ayuni, who won gold with Nur Suryani Taibi in the 10 metre air rifle pairs in New Delhi four years ago, had been scratched from the 10 metre air rifle and 50m rifle prone events after the garment was lost en route and failed to arrive before Monday’s registration for competition.

The luggage containing her tailored jacket was thought to be in London but was finally located in Kuala Lumpur airport’s Lost and Found and flown to Scotland on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s start of the shooting competition.