Cathy Freeman may miss championships

Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman is

Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman is

unlikely to defend her title at the world athletics championships in Edmonton in Canada in August.

But Chris Giannapoulos, speaking for her agents denied the Aboriginal runner was pregnant.

"She is definitely not retiring and she is not pregnant," he said.

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"We are monitoring her fitness and a decision on whether she will run this year will be made at the end of the week."

The 1997 and 1999 world champion said in February she had been drained by her Olympic year and missed the Australian domestic Grand Prix series.

Athletics Australia media manager Stephen Lock said it was understandable if Freeman took a year off as she had been competing at the highest level since winning a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games as a 16-year-old.

AFP