BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was a late withdrawal from the men’s pole vault on the first day of the Diamond League finals in Brussels on Friday, throwing into doubt his participation at next week’s Ultimate Championship.

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 United States-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.”