STOCKHOLM, Jan 8: Former world high-jump champion Kajsa Bergqvist of Sweden has quit the sport in the year of the Beijing Olympics.

Bergqvist, 31, said on Monday she was physically fit but was not mentally prepared to compete and train for another season.

“If I do something I want to do it 100 percent,” Bergqvist said in a statement. “But I no longer feel that drive, even though it is an Olympic year and even though I initially planned for 2008 to be my last year.”

Bergqvist holds the indoor world record for women after jumping 2.08 metres in Arnstadt, Germany in 2006. She became indoor world champion in 2001 and 2003 and won the outdoor world championships in Helsinki in 2005. She also won bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and won the European Championships in Munich in 2002.—AP