Tamberi’s Olympic title defence in jeopardy

PARIS: Gianmarco Tamberi’s quest to defend his Olympic high jump title is in serious doubt after the Italian athlete experienced severe kidney pain, which had plagued him just days before the preliminary round.

The 32-year-old, who famously shared the gold medal with Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, revealed that he awoke at 5 a.m. on Saturday with “stabbing” kidney colic pain, caused by an obstruction in the kidney area.

Tamberi took to Instagram to express his disappointment, stating, “It’s all finished. I hoped until the very end, I believed in spite of all that had happened.” Reflecting on his earlier battles, including a career-threatening ankle injury in 2016, he lamented, “This time unfortunately I really think [fate] won.”

Despite the pain, Tamberi indicated he would still take to the stage, although he remained uncertain about how he would manage to jump in such conditions.