Denise Lewis calls it a day
Wednesday, 29 June 2005 16:45Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Denise Lewis has quit athletics.
The 32-year-old had been expected to compete at both the World Championships in six weeks and chase a third title in next spring's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Lewis claimed her first major title at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and retained the title four years later in Kuala Lumpur.
The victory in Malaysia came only weeks after winning the European title in Budapest and the following year, as she shrugged off injury problems, she finished runner-up at the World Championships.
Then came her monumental Olympic Games success in Sydney, where she battled against a recurring Achilles injury which at one stage looked like preventing her from completing the heptathlon competition.
Lewis has been hit by injury since and it was three years before she contested her next competition, finishing fifth at the World Championships.
She has not competed this summer and although she claimed she wanted to compete in August's World Championships, she had not attained the qualifying standard of 6,100 points.
"I don't come to major decisions quickly, especially when they are life-changing," she said.
"I have thought it through and I am clear. I am sitting here and I am happy. I am thinking about my future and it is a future that does not include participating in athletics."
