Early Withdrawals … Fearing Penalties?

There's something funny going on at the 2005 world athletics championships. A lot of big stars are pulling out due to illness and injury.

The list of no-shows so far includes:

• Three-time world and Olympic javelin champion Jan Zelezny
• Olympic hammer champion Koji Murofushi.
• World 100m record holder Asafa Powell
• World 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman
• Olympic 800m bronze medallist Jolanda Ceplak
• Double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes
• Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist Ionela Tirlea-Manolache
• Four-time world and defending Olympic 1500m champion Hicham El Guerrouj
• Olympic triple jump champion Christian Olsson
• World cross-country silver medallist Alice Timbilil
• World half-marathon bronze medallist Abdullah Ahmad Hassan
• World championship 1500m bronze medallist Hayley Tullett, Olympic fourth-place decathlete Dean Macey, triple jumper Phillips Idowu, and 400m hurdler Chris Rawlinson
• World top-ranked pole vaulter Paul Burgess and 1500m runner Sarah Jamieson
• POSTSCRIPT: Former world marathon champion Lidia Simon
• POSTSCRIPT: Olympic 20km walk bronze medallist Nathan Deakes CORRECTION: Deakes is still competing in the 50km walk.
• POSTSCRIPT: World and Olympic 400m hurdles champion Felix Sanchez, formerly reported as "50-50," will run

I don't know if this is an unusually large number of withdrawals, but it seems like it is. I am quite certain that some of the athletes on the list above are genuinely injured or sick. But I still wonder if some of this activity is a reaction to the very agressive anti-doping programme that will be conducted by the IAAF:

The 2005 edition of these World Championships … will see more than 850 tests conducted, … easily the largest testing programme ever conducted at an IAAF World Championships. … Approximately 350 competitors will be blood screened as they enter the athlete’s village, while during the championships themselves, close to 500 tests will be collected … Also in competition, about 100 blood tests will be carried out for the detection of Blood Transfusion, Hemoglobine Based Oxygen Carriers (Hbocs) and other substances.

The competition begins on Saturday.