Sally Gunnell has announced she will quit athletics at the end of this season. Britain's 31-year-old former world and Olympic champion made the decision yesterday morning after she was forced to pull out of Wednesday night's 400 metres hurdles semi-final.

Yesterday she confirmed that her last run would be at Gateshead on September 7th. "I can say that these will be my final major championships," she said. "I intend that when I run at Gateshead on September 7th that will be my last race. I chatted to my husband, John, last night on the phone and I decided that this was it. I feel that the luck has just run out."

After winning gold in Barcelona in 1992 Gunnell went even better in Stuttgart a year later, smashing the world record as she won the World Championships.

But since then she has been cursed by a succession of injuries forcing her out of three successive major championships, including last year's Atlanta Olympics.

Gunnell added: "I have had two or three years when I've had a lot of injuries and I think it's time to call it a day. Part of me keeps thinking about hanging on and maybe going for the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games next year, but that would be silly.