Olympic triple jump gold medalist Pedro Pablo Pichardo will not defend his world title due to lower back pain.
Portugal’s track and field federation announced Pichardo’s withdrawal on Thursday, two days before triple jump qualifying on the first day of the nine-day worlds in Budapest.
Pichardo, 30, competed once this outdoor season on May 5. His best wind-legal jump that day was 17.65 meters, ranking him fourth in the world this year.
He won that competition with a 17.91-meter jump, which would rank No. 1 in the world in 2023, but it came with a 2.1 meter/second tailwind, just above the legal limit of 2.0.
Pichardo formerly competed for Cuba and has represented Portugal since 2018.
The men’s triple jump field at worlds will include zero previous Olympic or world outdoor champions.
Christian Taylor, who won six of the seven Olympic and world titles between 2011 and 2019, will miss worlds for the first time since 2009 after placing eighth at last month’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Taylor also missed the Tokyo Olympics after rupturing an Achilles tendon.
Jamaican Jaydon Hibbert, an 18-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Arkansas, ranks No. 1 in the world this year.
Hibbert can become the second-youngest man to win a world track and field title after Kenyan 5000m runner Ismael Kirui in 1993, according to Bill Mallon of Olympedia.org.
NBC Olympic research contributed to this report.
