Blessing Afrifah, the sprinter who holds Israel's national 100m record, has withdrawn from both the 100m and the 200m at the national athletics championships in Jerusalem, pulled at the last moment by a hamstring injury.
According to the report, he had been troubled by the hamstring for several weeks before he was struck from the entry lists shortly ahead of the meeting at the Givat Ram stadium. Medical staff judged it safer to rest him than risk aggravating the muscle further.
Afrifah is the fastest man Israel has produced. He set the national 100m record of 10.09 seconds in Jerusalem in July 2025, ending a mark that had stood for more than two decades, and he also holds the national 200m record of 19.96, run as a teenager in 2022.
Now 22, he won the 200m at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships and took the European Under-23 title in both 2023 and 2025. He had arrived in Jerusalem as the defending champion in both sprints.
The decision to hold him back is tied to the calendar. By the report's account, the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham are only about a month away, and his team preferred to protect his fitness for the continental stage rather than chase domestic titles at home.
The withdrawal lands on a weekend already heavy with meaning for Israeli athletics, marking as it does the close of decathlon record-holder Ariel Atias's competitive career, whose retirement this desk reported separately.
No return date has been given, and for now the withdrawal rests on a single Israeli report. His condition in the run-up to Birmingham is likely to be the more telling measure of how serious the injury proves to be.
