Marathon: Injury hampers Davies in Paris

A hip injury has hindered Whangarei's Mary Davies attempt at running the Olympic qualifying time of two hours 32 minutes at the Paris Marathon.

The 29-year-old Ottawa-based runner spent the summer in Northland, training under coach Ian Babe to prepare for Sunday's marathon, where she hoped to better her previous best time of 2:38 to qualify for the London Olympics, getting under way in late July.

Davies left Whangarei to stop over at her home in Ottawa, Canada three weeks ago before flying to France last week to get ready for the Paris event. "When she left she was in really good condition - the best I've ever seen her actually," Babe said about the athlete who he trained when she was in her early 20s, and before she moved to the United States to attend university.

However, the hip injury she had been nursing earlier this year flared up on the flight to Canada and had been bothering her ahead of Sunday's marathon.

"She had problems ever since the flight. Although she had consulted excellent doctors before running, the injury reared its ugly head during her race," Babe said.

Davies started well among the 35,000 runners who contested the annual 42km event around the streets of Paris, starting at Champs ?lysées Ave to Foch Ave running through Bastille, Nation, Vincennes and les Tuileries, finishing near the Arch de Triomphe.

She was on target for the first 12km but her hip became too painful, and she had to withdraw from the race at the 20km mark. "It's very sad ... and I'm very disappointed for her. She had worked really hard for it, but I guess it happens in sport - there's highs and lows, and you just have to roll with it," Babe said.

Before the Paris Marathon, Babe and Davies had discussed entering Davies in the Ottawa Marathon on May 18 as a last ditch attempt at qualifying for London, but Babe said he was unsure of what Davies wanted to do.

In 2009, Davies shot into the national rankings by qualifying for the Marathon World Cup in Berlin in her first marathon. She did not disappoint and led the Kiwi team into eighth place.