Vlasic withdraws from Millrose Games

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Two-time World champion and 2008 Olympic high jump silver medallist Blanka Vlasic has pulled out of the Millrose Games meet because of an illness, the USATF said on its website.

The 26-year-old Croatian was planning to make Friday's Millrose Games her first competition on United States' soil. The USATF did go into details about the illness.

The meeting at New York's Madison Square Garden is the first stop of USA Track and Field's Visa Championship Series.

Vlasic is the reigning World Indoor champion and set a personal best of 2.08 meters in August in Zagreb.

It was the highest clearance in 12 years, and she trails only world-record holder Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria on the all-time list.

Through the 2007-2008 seasons, Vlasic had an unbeaten string of 34 victories that ended with her silver-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics.

Meanwhile, Jamaican women's sprint giant Veronica Campbell-Brown will compete in the women's 60 metres.

The two-time Olympic 200 metre gold medalist won the Millrose 60 metres race four years ago in a photo finish over American Lisa Barber.

Barber is also entered in Friday's race.