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Reigning IAAF World Indoor 800m champion, Wilfred Bungei of Kenya, has been forced to withdraw from this weekend's IAAF World Indoor Championships with an injury.
"During his workout yesterday in Nairobi, Wilfred felt some pain while doing some faster strides," said Eric Lilot of Demadonna Athletics Promotions, the Italian athlete management firm which represents Bungei. "He stopped immediately and applied ice. This morning, however, he still had some pain while jogging so has decided to skip Valencia."
Bungei, 27, who has an outdoor personal best of 1:42.34, was enjoying a solid indoor season this year. He finished second to Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy twice at the beginning of this season, won his race in Valencia on Feb. 9, then came back to defeat Borzakovskiy in Stockholm on Feb. 21.
"He was quite confident in medaling after his last race and win in Stockholm, which obviously gave him even more assurance, seen as that he was able to hold off a great finisher like Borzakovskiy," added Lilot.
In Moscow in 2006, Bungei defeated South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi by just 1/1000th of a second. Borzakovskiy, the home country favorite, got the bronze.