Casey Combest Injured in His Comeback Attempt
by: LetsRun.com
December 8, 2007

Yesterday we wrote about the comeback of Casey Combest, the American high school record holder in the 60m, who at 27 is making a return to track and field after a long layoff. Combest's comeback is garnering quite a bit of attention (did we mention Combest is a white sprinter?) as according to this thread, PDiddy is financing a possible HBO documentary on his comeback.

While published reports said Combest was racing today at Illinois State, he also was racing last night at Southern Illinois.

According to a report by Mike Prizy on the t-and-f mailing list archive things did not go well. Combest had a great start but then injured his hamstring and ran 7.27:

His camp says that in practice he is now running as well as he was when he left the sport (he's been training the last eight months) and thought 6.60 was realistic for his first race back. His indoor goal is to qualify for the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Feb. 22-24, 2008.

However, I was not at SIU, I was told that he looked like his old self out of the blocks, had a huge lead at 35m, but pulled a hammie and hobbled in for a 7.21 (editor's note his time was 7.27) (60m.) He also was charged with a false start, moved to another heat, and had a recall because his blocks moved.

http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stats/2007-2008/results.html

Casey told me he was nursing a slight issue with his hamstring, but thought he was ready to race this weekend. I think he is learning that 27-year-old hams are a little more fickle than 17-year-olds hams. He scratched his Saturday race at Illinois State University and probably will not run the 55th Ted Haydon Holiday Classic at the University of Chicago next Saturday.

*Results

Event 14  Men 60 Meter Dash
===================================================================
    Name                    Year School                 Prelims  H#
===================================================================
Preliminaries
  1   130 Worsley, Dominique     Illinois                  6.83q  9 
  2   208 Bryden, Dwain          Lincoln (Mo.)             6.90q  2 
  3    55 Hewitt, Maurice        Untouchables              6.91q  7 
  4   191 Fisher, Kawayne        Lincoln (Mo.)             6.92q  6 
  5   224 Deloney, Brandon       Southern Illinoi          6.93q  4 
  6   183 Bascoe, Gerald         Lincoln (Mo.)             6.94q  9 
  7   215 Holliday, Justin       Memphis Elite TC          6.94q  4 
  8   136 President, Antwane     Unat-Lincoln (Mo          6.97q  9 
  9   174 Mitchell, Franklyn     Lincoln (Mo.)             7.02q  8 
 10    77 Jackson, Brandon       Florrisant Valle          7.03q  1 
 11   276 Baffour, Tony          Unattached                7.05q  3 
 12   125 Bush, Pierre           Illinois                  7.06q  8 
 13   274 Blanks, Kenny          Unattached                7.06   3 
 13   156 Parker, Raymon         Unattached                7.06   7 
 15   218 Greene, Udwuan         Memphis Elite TC          7.09   2 
 16    79 Johnson, Courtney      Florrisant Valle          7.10   5 
 17   263 McKinney, Trenton      Southern Illinoi          7.11   6 
 18   292 Neal, Tyyon            Unattached                7.13   5 
 19    63 Smith, Brion           Florrisant Valle          7.16   4 
 20   142 Mzamo, Elvis           Unattached                7.16  10 
 21   262 Kozak, Justin          Southern Illinoi          7.16   4 
 22   154 Patterson, Darren      Unattached                7.17   9 
 23    65 White, Ike             Florrisant Valle          7.18   4 
 24   148 Holman, Cory           Unattached                7.21   2 
 25   143 Townsend, Andre        Unattached                7.25   7 
 26   282 Combest, Casey         Unattached                7.27   3 
 27   211 Jean-Pierre, McFar     Lincoln (Mo.)             7.28   7 
 28   123 Johnson, Paul          Illinois                  7.28   8 
 29   300 Bastian, Rudon         Louisville                7.29   5 
 30   281 Spalding, Shawn        Unattached                7.31   5 
 31    14 Gwashavanhu, Farir     Lindenwood                7.33   1 
 32   216 Neal, Justin           Memphis Elite TC          7.42   7 
 33   176 Brown, Kevin           Lincoln (Mo.)             7.43   3 
 34    74 Abram, Roosevelt       Florrisant Valle          7.46  10 
 35    37 Owen, Matthew          Lindenwood                7.49   1 
 36     6 Castillo, Michael      Unat-Austin Peay          7.50   4 
 37   139 Thompson, Ridge        Unattached                7.50  10 
 38   199 Hamilton, Jarrid       Lincoln (Mo.)             7.58   5 
 39   275 Robinson, James        Unattached                7.60   9 
 40   324 Abston, Marcus         Unattached                7.76   9 
 41   181 Douglas, Joel          Unattached                7.97   8    

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