Cacho abandons race, may miss Olympics

Madrid: Former Olympic 1,500 metres champion Fermin Cacho pulled up injured in his first competitive race of the season on Sunday and is almost certain to miss the Sydney Games.

Spain's Cacho, gold medallist in Barcelona in 1992 and silver medallist in Atlanta, suffered a recurrence of an Achilles injury during Sunday's meeting in Padua and had to abandon the race after just 60 metres.

The Spaniard, who first suffered the injury in February, stopped short of ruling himself out of the Olympics but he admitted he was very pessimistic about his chances.

"It was a disaster," Cacho was quoted as saying in Marca. "I don't want to think in definite terms about anything but I know I have to think first about curing this injury which has been bothering me since February."

"If I don't end up going anywhere, then I don't go. It doesn't matter.""I'll get a scan done back in Spain but at the moment I'm very pessimistic."

(c) Reuters Limited.