Athletics-Duplantis pulls out of Diamond League Final with muscle tightness

Sweden's pole vault ​world record-holder Mondo Duplantis withdrew ​from the Diamond League ‌Final on ​Friday with leg tightness, raising questions over his fitness a week before the World Athletics Ultimate ‌Championships.

"We will see if I can make it to the Ultimate Championships. I don't have the answer right now," he said. The withdrawal is the latest blow ‌for the double Olympic gold medallist, who was forced to pull ‌out of the competition at the London Diamond League meeting with leg tightness in July.

"This problem in my leg started in London," Duplantis said. "It felt okay since then and ⁠I ​put a lot ⁠of work in, but the pain came back in Zurich (last week). "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. My head is everywhere right now. It's super difficult but that's life, that's the life of an athlete. I try ⁠to stay calm and positive." The inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships, scheduled for September ⁠11 to 13 ⁠in Budapest, offers a record $10-million prize fund, with each individual champion pocketing $150,000, the biggest winner's cheque in track & field ‌history.