ATHLETICS:FORMER marathon world record holder Khalid Khannouchi has officially announced his retirement.

The Moroccan-born 40-year-old had been plagued by foot injuries and his last marathon was in New York in 2007.

“It was really my feet that betrayed me,” said Khannouchi. “Every time I go and try

to push hard, I get the pain and soreness again. I can’t train hard and if you can’t train at a certain level where you can be competitive it’s not worth it to keep wasting time.”

Khannouchi, who became a US citizen in 2000, set a marathon world record of two hours five minutes 42 seconds in Chicago in 1999, becoming the first man to go under 2:06.

He then bettered his mark in London in 2002 with a time of 2:05.38, beating Kenya’s Paul Tergat and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.

Khannouchi won the Chicago marathon four times between 1997 and 2002 and London once, but never raced at an Olympic Games.