WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Olympic champion shot-putter Valerie Adams is considering pulling out of her attempt to win a fifth straight world championship title in Beijing later this month.
The 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion has been struggling this season after returning from surgery on her on her right elbow and left shoulder and was not keen to compete in China unless she was 100 percent fit.
Her manager Nick Cowan told the New Zealand Herald that her trip to Beijing for the Aug. 22-30 championships was "up for review" as the 30-year-old looked forward to her Olympic title defense in Brazil next year.
"This year was always a risk but we knew we had to take it to be ready for Rio," he told the newspaper.
"We had to give it a crack to be able to put some sticks in the sand. It's all about Rio for her, and always has been."
Adams, IAAF Athlete of the Year in 2014, lost for the first time in 57 meetings when she finished fifth in Paris last month and effectively gave up the Diamond League title she had owned for four years when she finished fourth in Stockholm last week.
"(Stockholm) wasn't her best performance," Cowan added.
"It wasn't in line with how we thought things would track and it probably added a few things up for us, so those discussions are what to do from here -- push on or come home."
German Christina Schwanitz, who won her fourth straight Diamond League event in Stockholm, is favorite to take the world crown Adams first won in Osaka in 2007.