Defending up-run champion Caroline Wostmann has withdrawn from the June 4 Comrades Marathon after failing to recover from a hamstring injury.
"Despite aggressive recovery treatments and rehab to the injury it hasn't healed sufficiently to allow me to safely compete at Comrades this year," the accounting lecturer said yesterday.
"I won't be running but I will be one of the supporters," she said.
Wostmann picked up the injury during the Two Oceans Marathon last month, forcing her to pull out of that event mid-race.
"I picked up a hamstring niggle and it was later diagnosed as a neural injury that was far more serious than originally presumed," said Wostmann, who won the Two Oceans and Comrades double in 2015.