Il Nuovo Postiglione - Duplantis pulls out of Diamond League finals

The two-time Olympic and three-time world champion made an appearance on the track of King Baudouin stadium to confirm he would not be taking part, bringing an end to his bid for a sixth successive Diamond League title.

The 26-year-old US-born Swede then shook hands with the six other competitors, leaving Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis the stand-out favourite to win in Brussels.

Duplantis, who has set the world record 15 times, explained that he has been feeling a bit of tightness in his leg which he had hoped to overcome.

But the problem flared up again during the warm-up.

"It's terrible. It's not what you want to do as an athlete," Duplantis said.

"You always want to compete. It breaks my heart. I hate this so much."

Duplantis admitted he was not certain to make the inaugural season-ending World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest next week.

"I try to stay calm and positive," he said. "We will see if I can make it to the Ultimate Championship. I don't have the answer right now."

Duplantis explained that the problem in his leg started in London.

"It felt okay since then and I put a lot of work in, but the pain came back in Zurich," he said of last week's Diamond League meet which he won with a best of 6.25m.

"I pushed through it, probably a little bit too much. I said that if I felt this irritation during my warm-up, I wasn't going to jump.

"Therefore, I made the difficult decision not to start. The worst possible thing to do is having to pull out of a competition.

"The fans wanted to see a good show and I wish I could deliver that. Unfortunately, I can't do that right now. My head is everywhere right now. It's super difficult but that's life, that's the life of an athlete."

A.Ferrara--INP