Justin Gatlin (right) and Shawn Crawford in Helsinki on Monday. (AFP)

Helsinki: Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi became on Monday the latest Olympic champion to withdraw through injury from the Helsinki World Athletics Championships which begins on Saturday.

Murofushi, 30, who inherited the Olympic gold medal in Athens last year after Hungary’s Adrian Annus was disqualified for manipulating a dope test, has been suffering from back problems. “I have been trying to peak for the World Championships but it was not to be,” Murofushi said.

Also on Monday, Jan Zelezny, the best javelin thrower in history with three Olympic and three world gold medals, announced he would miss the meet for the first time since 1987. Zelezny, 39, aggravated an Achilles tendon injury at last Friday’s Golden League meet in Oslo. “The qualification is followed immediately by the finals the next day. This is what I am most worried about,” he told a news conference in Prague.

Romanian Olympic 400m silver medallist Ionela Tirlea-Manolache will also miss the championships with a back injury.

Both of the Athens 1,500m champions have already withdrawn. Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj is recovering from a virus and Britain’s 800-1,500 women’s gold medallist Kelly Holmes is suffering from another in the long list of injuries that have plagued her career.

Greek American Olympic 200m champion Shawn Crawford will run the 100 only after a foot injury.

Potentially the biggest blow is the loss of world 100m record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica, who was scheduled to come up against Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin of the US in Sunday’s final.