Meraf Bahta missed the SM – is fighting against the clock

Meraf Bahta suffered a heel injury at a gala in the Dutch Hengelo barely two months ago.

The injury stopped her from the WC in Eugene last month, but she had hoped to make a comeback at the WC in Norrköping today.

Does not rule out EC start

But when the 10,000 meters were decided on Friday evening, it was without Bahta.

But coach Per Skoog does not rule out that she can be on the starting line when the European Championships in Munich begin in less than two weeks.

"She is starting quality training after the injury she sustained in Hengelo, so we hope to get her ready for the EC.

But SM in particular was a bit too tight," he writes in an SMS to SVT Sport.

Gold for Mengsteab

Bahta has also pulled out of Sunday's 5,000 meters.

In Bahta's absence, the SM gold in the 10,000 meters went to Hälle's Samrawit Mengsteab in a time of 34.34.21.

She was 19.01 ahead of skier Lovisa Modig, who made her first ever track race.