Algerian runner Taoufik Makhloufi announced that he will not participate in the Olympic Games currently being held in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, due to his lack of readiness due to the injury he sustained at the knee.
“I waited for the last moment to make the decision because it was difficult and important for me, for I thought about people who expected me to participate in the Olympics,” Taoufik Makhloufi said on his official Facebook account on July 26.
He added: “I had to listen to my body and knee, which were confused with Coronavirus pandemic that afflicted me last year on my preparations, it is not easy to be at the highest level when our fitness betrays us, I did several physical tests and they were not positive, not achieving the times I used to in training was frustrating, but to come back from Japan empty-handed would have been even more frustrating.”
Makhloufi stressed, addressing Algerian people, that he would have liked to participate and carry the Algerian flag and run for them, but he preferred not to give them false hopes, as he described it.
