Olympic high jump champion Hellebaut retires

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian Olympic high jump champion Tia Hellebaut announced her retirement from athletics on Friday because she is three months pregnant.

Hellebaut, 30, told a news conference she and her partner and coach Wim Vandeven felt it would be hard to match the high of 2008 when she took gold in Beijing as well as the world indoor pentathlon title.

"We decided to let nature take its course and let it decide if I would be doing the high jump next year or not. And nature decided very quickly as I turned out to be pregnant in mid-October," she said on her website (www.sport.be/tiahellebaut/nl/).

Hellebaut is also the current European high jump champion.