Julie Baumann, the 36 year-old Swiss record-holder over 100 metres hurdles, has pulled a muscle during training and will be out of action for at least two months. Her hopes of qualifying for a fourth Olympic games are definitely over.

Baumann was training at Zurich's Letzigrund stadium ahead of Friday's prestigious Weltklasse meeting, when she sustained the thigh injury.

The Zurich athlete has been plagued by injury over the past two years. She missed all of last season with various injuries, and has been beset by problems to the thigh and heel this year. Her last competition was the European championships in Budapest in 1998, in which she finished seventh.

Her husband and trainer, Beat Baumann, said it was still open whether she would pursue her athletics career once she recovers from her latest problems.

Baumann's best results date from the late 1980s and early 1990s. She came sixth at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 and was twice fifth in the athletics world championships. She won gold on 60 metres hurdles at the indoor world championships in 1993, but only made it into the semi-finals at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

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