Former High Jump World Champion Bergqvist Quits

Sweden's former high jump world champion Kajsa Bergqvist announced her retirement from international competition on Monday.

"It's a decision that has grown during the autumn," the 3-1-year-old said in a statement on the Swedish athletics federation Web site (www.friidrott.se).

Last September, Bergqvist opted out of the remainder of the season after finishing seventh at the Osaka world championships and another poor performance at the Golden League meeting in Zurich.

She said then that her focus was on this year's Beijing Olympic Games, where she thought she could challenge for one of the medals.

"It was hard for me to have the right kind of spark during 2007, so I decided to take a thorough break," Bergqvist said.

"I wanted to feel the joy come back by itself, but it didn't and if I no longer have the drive from before it's not possible to carry on."

Bergqvist won her only outdoor world championship gold medal at Helsinki in 2005, a year after missing the 2004 Olympics in Athens with an Achilles' tendon injury.

Berqvist's career has been more impressive at indoor events with world championship golds in Lisbon in 2001 and Birmingham two years later.

She set the current world indoor record of 2.08 metres at an event in Arnstadt, Germany in February 2006.

Bergqvist won her only Olympic medal, bronze, at the 2000 Games in Sydney.