Two time Olympic and World Champion 400m hurdler, Felix Sanchez, announced on Tuesday via video press conference in his home country, Dominican Republic that he has had enough of track and field and will be walking away, just a day after US 400m athlete, Sanya Richards-Ross also announced her retirement from the sport.
Sanchez failed to spark at his first Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 but bounced back to enjoy an illustrious career. During the 2001 to 2004 seasons he won an amazing 43 consecutive races to underline his greatness in the event.
The 38 year old won gold in the 400 meter hurdles at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and managed to repeat that feat eight years later at the 2012 Summer Games in London. He also won the Gold medals at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships.
The athlete gave a hint of something to happen, prior to the start of the press conference when he wrote on his Instagram page:
“Hoy es el día… luego te cuento. Today is the day…. I will explain later. #Boom #RoadToRio”
The Dominican record holder will not defend his title at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as he had promised in an exclusive interview with Laureus. At that time he had revealed that he originally planned to retire after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, but would continue to London 2017.
The Laureus Ambassador, first received the prestigious award in 2012, and two years later he won the Laureus ‘World Comeback of the Year Award’ for his achievement in Beijing.
He was quoted at the awards;
“Rio will be my fifth Olympics. I would have called it quits there, but I got wind that the next World Championships is in London and I just felt like that would be the perfect way to end my career, where I had so much success and such great memories in 2012. Just to finish in 2017 in London would mean ten World Championships and five Olympics and I think that would be an excellent career.”
Sanchez’s personal best of 47.25 done in 2003 places him among the top ten best of all-time. He has made representation at eight world Championship Games, with his debut in 1999 Seville Games.
He also donned the colours of Dominica at three Olympic Games, the last being that in London. Since his exploits at the London Games his career took a rocky path and hasn’t recovered much, leading to a slip outside the top 100 hurdlers in the world during the 2015 season.
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