Top > Sport > 2006 > October > 2006-10-28

Athletic Queen, Lorraine Fenton, Announces Retirement

Athletic fans will be disappointed, but not surprised, to read that one of the top women athletes of the past decade, Lorraine Fenton from Jamaica, is retiring from the profession. Fenton, who celebrated her 33rd birthday last month, has decided that she will never again reach the high standards that she reached in her running career and has decided to call it quits.

Lorraine Fenton won a silver medal in the 400 m race in the 2000 Olympic games, before going on to come second over one lap in consecutive World Championships (2001 and 2002). Fenton set the Jamaica record for the 400m run at 49.30 seconds and was part of the Jamaican team that won the 4 x 400m relay race at the 2001 World Championships. She also won silver at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki as part of the Jamaican team.

Fenton?s career hasn?t been without disappointments, however. She missed the 2004 athletics season due to a nasty injury and although she managed to get back into running, she feels that she was never able to return to her previous high standards. Her aim was to achieve a gold medal in the Athens Olympics ? thus capping a brilliant athletic career - but due to her injury, she was not able to perform as well as she wanted. Fenton announced that she was convinced that she could never reach any higher in her career and on Wednesday she told the world of her retirement plans.