Injured Tajinderpal Singh Toor pulls out of World Athletics Championships

New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) Indian shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor on Saturday pulled out of the ongoing World Athletics Championships 2022 in Oregon, USA, due to a groin injury.

The 27-year-old Toor made a few practice puts before the qualification round in Oregon but decided to withdraw after failing to recover from the adductor muscle strain he suffered four days ago at a training session in Chula Vista, USA.

He was the only Indian shot putter at the world athletics championships. The injury also means that the Toor will not compete at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, which will be held from July 28 to August 8.

"Today was a hard day for me. I couldn't perform as I intended. Injuries have been continuously encompassing me. Last year, it was my wrist and now it's my thigh. Just four days before the competition my groin muscle was pulled and it greatly affected my performance," olympics.com quoted Toor as saying.

"However, I will work hard and come back stronger," he added.

The Tokyo Olympian was part of the 36-member Indian athletics squad for CWG 2022 despite failing to hit the qualifying standard of 20.50m set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

Toor has had a modest season so far, breaching the 20m mark only once. The 20.34m effort came at the National Inter State Championships on June 12 which remains a far cry from his personal best of 21.49m, which is both the national record and Asian record in men's shot put.

The reigning Asian Games champion competed at the Tokyo Olympics with an injury as well, where he failed to make the finals after managing just one legal throw with a heavily bandaged wrist. He underwent wrist surgery last September.