Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Jamaica's Lorraine Fenton hangs up her spikes
10-19-2006

PARIS, France (AFP): Jamaica's Lorraine Fenton, one of the leading women's 400 metres runners in the last decade, announced her retirement on Wednesday.

Fenton got a 400m silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games and also finished second over one lap of the track at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships.

Additionally, she also played a key part in the Jamaica team that won the 2001 World Championships 4x400m gold medal.

"I celebrated my 33rd birthday last month and that was an appropriate time for reflection coming, as it did, at the end of the season," said Fenton, in a statement on the web site of her manager Claude Bryan.

"I have had a very good career, some wonderful moments, but I'm a competitive person and realised that it was unlikely that I was going to be in contention again for an individual medal at the very highest levels."

Problems started for Fenton in 2004 when she was injured in the early part of the year and didn't race all season.

"I missed the whole of 2004 and have never quite been able to get back to the same level again even though I am proud of what I have been able to do in the last two years.

"If I could have stayed injury free I think I could again have got another Olympic medal in Athens. I know how much I wanted to get a gold medal after three successive silvers," reflected Fenton.

Fenton is the Jamaican 400m record holder with 49.30 seconds, a time she ran in 2002.