For most athletes, the final hours before a global championship are about fine‑tuning. For Noah Lyles’ training partner Jordan Anthony, they brought something very different. Just a day before stepping onto the track at the World Indoor Championships in Poland, the American sprinter was dealing with a painful complication. Not from anything he did wrong but from an unexpected procedural issue gone awry.
As part of standard pre-race procedures, athletes are required to undergo testing. In Anthony’s case, a blood draw did not go as planned. The needle missed the vein, leading to a large clot forming in his left arm. By the time he arrived at the track, his arm was heavily taped, and his movement was visibly limited. Still, he stepped onto the 60m start line and advanced through his opening heat.
“Yesterday I had drug testing, they took blood, but he didn’t stick my vein, he stuck outside,” Anthony said. “I got a clot, the size of a football. Luckily, I’m still running. That’s why my arm is taped up. I can’t really do this with it. It is what it is, that’s not going to stop me.”
60m world leader Jordan Anthony said he got a big clot in his arm yesterday after a DCO stuck him outside the vein during a drug test.
Said his training partner Noah Lyles told him before he left: “be used to the unexpected.” This qualifies.https://t.co/iGYBObnGwz pic.twitter.com/Tcsa98Uuvv
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) March 20, 2026
This is a developing story…
