Ace Masterton endurance runner Graeme Butcher remains uncertain of the cause of the injury which forced him to withdraw from the New Zealand squad that contested the world 24-hour championships in Poland earlier this month.
Butcher first knew something was awry about three months ago, when moving forward at any pace became a painful experience and medical attention showed him to have suffered a stress fracture to the pelvis.
"Honestly, I still haven't got any idea what caused it," Butcher said yesterday. "All I can think is that it must have something to do with continually pounding the roads but, then again, I wasn't actually doing big mileage at the time. It's a bit of a puzzle really."
Butcher would have been heading to Poland as the defending national 24-hour champion, having won that title in Auckland last year with a distance of 270km - up more than 30km on what he covered when fourth in the same event in 2010.
His aim was to break the 220km mark at the worlds and, right until being struck down by his injury, everything pointed to him achieving that feat.
