Australia’s Sally Pearson will be unable to defend her 100 metres hurdles title at the Rio Olympics after tearing her hamstring in training.

Pearson returned to competition in June 2016 after spending a year on the sidelines due to a broken and dislocated wrist suffered in a fall during a Diamond League race.

In addition to her recovery from the wrist injury, Pearson had also been dealing with calf and Achilles tendon problems and was back on the Gold Coast for sprint training seven weeks out from the Games.

• Twenty-eight dead in Istanbul explosions
• Orlando mourners warned to brace for ‘hoaxers’
• British Labour plunges deeper into crisis

“My body finally was starting to feel normal again. It was starting to feel the speed, the strength, it was all coming together,” she told the Nine Network.

“And unfortunately on Monday my body just didn’t agree with me this time. It couldn’t push that extra little bit to the edge … and I tore my hamstring.”

With the Olympics to kick off on August 5, Pearson said she could have run at Rio but not anywhere near the top level.

“I could’ve gone to the Olympics and still competed, but competing and going out to the Olympics means different things to me,” she said.

“I go there for 100 per cent effort and I wouldn’t be able to give that effort that I would like to bring like I do to every competition.

“The risk of re-injuring it and causing a lot more damage and probably not coming back was very, very high.”

Pearson won silver in the 100m hurdles at the Beijing Games in 2008 before winning the world title at Daegu in Korea in 2011 and then the Olympic title the following year in London.

The 29-year-old said the decision to pull out of Rio contention was made with an eye towards the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

“It’s a hard time for me at the moment. I’m disappointed and I’m gutted,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it is the biggest sporting event in the world that I am going to be missing out on and I can’t be a part of. It’s devastating that I can’t be at Rio as the Olympic champ.”