By Titus Mohler
Correspondent

Suffolk resident LaShawn Merritt’s 2012 Olympic Games experience came to a disappointing end after he re-aggravated a left hamstring injury during the 400 meter qualifying round on Saturday in London.

Merritt got off to a rough start in this first-round race, but he began to really slow down 150 meters in. Shortly after that, he slowly walked off the track.

The initial injury occurred on July 20 when Merritt was in Monaco participating in a Diamond League race meant to be a tune-up for the Olympics. As he neared the homestretch of that race, he pulled up and began hopping, cradling his left leg in his hands, likening the feeling to a cramp.

However, shortly afterward he seemed upbeat and confident that he would be able to recuperate and be ready for London two weeks later.

Saturday, he told the Associated Press that while not at 100 percent, he thought he would be able to advance through the early rounds. But as he strode through the curve in the track, he began to feel the injury in the hamstring and could tell it simply had not had enough time for rest and healing since Monaco.

Merritt still held out hope that he might still be able to participate in the 4×400 meter relay, which begins on Thursday, but it was not meant to be.

“LaShawn will not be competing in the relay, and he is due to return back to the States on Monday,” Merritt’s agent Christina Sauls stated.

Merritt arrived in London on a quest to repeat as gold medalist in the same two events that he won in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and he was favored to do just that.

Grenada’s Kirani James is now the favorite to win the 400 meters. In the 4×400 relay, Team USA, which has won the event for the last seven Olympiads, will now find the competition far more daunting without the year’s fastest 400-meter runner in their lineup.

This ending is particularly dissatisfying given that Merritt had already overcome so much just to reach London.

In 2011, he finished serving a 21-month suspension from the sport after testing positive for a banned substance. He was able to prove to an international panel that it was accidental.

Then, he successfully won the right to compete in this year’s Olympics when the Court of Arbitration for Sport declared that banning athletes from the Olympics who had already served a suspension for the same offense was redundant.

Merritt explained to the AP that he was disappointed by the injury but would return to the sport that he loves, setting his sights on next year’s world championships, and even the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.