Team GB athlete declines call-up to Paris 2024 Olympics despite being ex-world champion

Team GB hurdler Andrew Pozzi will not compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics after confirming his unexpected retirement from the sport. The 32-year-old was called up to participate in the French capital but has been forced to hang up his spikes less than a month out from the Summer Games.

Pozzi - who was crowned world indoor champion in the 60-metre hurdles in Birmingham back in 2018 - had been selected for Great Britain. However, an untimely injury has forced him to make the "profoundly sad" decision.

"It's with great sadness that I must decline my selection to represent Team GB and announce my withdrawal from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris," he wrote on Instagram. "After missing the 2023 season with serious Injury, I have battled exceptionally hard to return to the world stage and earn my place at what would have been my fourth Olympic Games."

He went on to confirm his "body gave way in training to another serious ankle fracture" and prompted a round of tests. Pozzi described injury as the "greatest competitor" he'd faced over the course of his 17-year career but said the resilience he'd shown to overcome those setbacks was what he was most proud of.

"I have decided that now is the right time for me to retire from professional athletics," he added. "This is a profoundly sad moment, but also one that I can embrace fully with the knowledge that I have approached every minute of my time in this sport with uncompromising focus, resolute determination and the highest of standards."

Pozzi made his Olympic bow at London 2012 before going on to compete at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. A hamstring injury hampered his performance in his debut on home soil, while he struggled to figure among the medal places at each of his latter two appearances.

As fate would have it, Pozzi's personal best in the 110-metre hurdles took place in Paris. He clocked a time of 13.14 seconds in July 2017 and wasn't far off matching that this season, recording a 2024 best of 13.23 seconds in Montgeron earlier this year.

Great Britain will now be leaning on the talents of Tade Ojora to challenge for silverware in Paris. The 24-year-old won gold in the 110m hurdles at each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 British Athletics Championships before earning selection for his Olympic debut this year.

Despite beating Pozzi in the past, Ojora's personal best - a wind-assisted 13.16 seconds last year - is just shy of his compatriot's record time. That being said, he'll hope to peak in Paris when the men's event gets underway on August 4.

Pozzi - who is coached by Malcolm Arnold, former trainer of Olympic silver medallist Colin Jackson - has been denied the glittering farewell from sport he likely always envisioned. However, his departure could grant up-and-comer Ojora the opportunity he needs to sparkle later this summer.