Athletics: Thomas succumbs to injury

IWAN THOMAS, the Commonwealth 400 metre champion, was due to fly home from Johannesburg yesterday after an ankle injury sustained during training cut short his South African track campaign.

The Welshman, a regular runner on the South African summer circuit, was due to line up with the former world champion, Antonio Pettigrew, and his fellow American, Jerome Young, at the high-altitude Ruimsig Stadium track near Johannesburg today.

Morocco's Abdelkader El Mouaziz, the surprise runner-up in the 1998 Flora London Marathon, will run in this year's event on 18 April. His addition to the field adds further depth and quality to the strongest men's field ever assembled in a big-city marathon.

Last year El Mouaziz took the race by storm when he built a decisive lead in the closing stages. However, Spain's Abel Anton, urged on by Portugal's Antonio Pinto, closed the gap and with fewer than 600 metres to go the world champion took the lead and went on to win the race. El Mouaziz finished second in a Moroccan record.