Long jump champ is out with injury

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Two-time Olympic long jump champion Heike Drechsler of Germany will not compete in next month's world championships because of an Achilles' tendon injury.
Last month, Drechsler said she would decide in the fall whether to compete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She refused to commit to the games after the latest setback.
"I am very sad. I've never had a season like this," Drechsler said today after undergoing tests at a hospital in Basel, Switzerland. "I am not going to let myself get depressed."
The 38-year-old Drechsler is scheduled to have an operation to repair the tendon tear on Aug. 7.
"I still love to jump. I think this will motivate me during the rehabilitation, and I need that motivation," she said.
In her only competition this year, Drechsler jumped 19 feet, 11 inches at the Golden League meet in Rome on July 11, well below her career best of 24-61/2, achieved in 1992.
The world championships begin Aug. 23 in Paris.
Drechsler won the long jump gold medal at the inaugural world championships in 1983 and repeated 10 years later.
She won Olympic gold in 1992 and 2000, and took silver in 1988. She was the world runner-up in 1991 and won four European titles.
Drechsler, who once held the world record in the 200 meters, holds the record for the longest span between major titles of 17 years -- between the 1983 world and the 2000 Olympic gold.