Brigitte to bid farewell

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

After Olympic agony, Foster-Hylton says she will retire at end of season

LONDON, England:

Twenty-four hours after her Olympic dream crashed into the fifth obstacle of her women's 100m hurdles heat at the Olympic Games, Jamaica's most decorated sprint hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton has called time on a long and successful international career and will retire at the end of this season.

Perhaps it wasn't the fairy-tale ending that many had hoped for, but with IAAF World Championships in Athletics medals of all colours already secured over the years, Foster-Hylton, who turns 38 in a few months, had set her sights on winning her first Olympic medal in London, England.

With that opportunity now lost, Foster-Hylton, who toldThe Gleanershe was still hurting from the episode, believes the time is right to step aside.

"At the start of the season, I said this was going to be my last season. All I really wanted was an Olympic medal. I think I have achieved quite a lot at the World Championships level, and there is really nothing else to look forward to. All I really wanted was an Olympic medal and it didn't happen, so I am moving along," said Foster-Hylton.

STILL HURTING

"I'm still hurting. It's going to take some time. Maybe after the finals I will be able to move on, but it's hurdling and I guess the Olympics just isn't my thing," Foster-Hylton added.

The sprinter, who is ranked third in the Diamond League, will, however, honour her commitments on the circuit this season with the hope of closing out her career with fast times and the Diamond League jackpot.

Foster-Hylton, who was competing in her fourth Olympic Games, has a miserable Olympic record - eighth place in the final in Sydney 2000, forced out of the 2004 Athens Games because of injury, and sixth in the final in Beijing.

This was, however, one of her best seasons coming into a major championship, with her season-best time of 12.51 making her the second fastest this season, behind world champion Sally Pearson.

"I was very confident going into the race because my training was going very well," Foster-Hylton said. "I had a time trial the previous week and I ran an extremely fast time. My coach was saying that the gold medal was there for me to grab and that it was up to me to mess it up and maybe he jinxed me - I messed it up."

RUSHED TECHNIQUE

Reliving the agonising race, Foster-Hylton said: "I think I got a decent start. I had a solid push so I had a lot of forward momentum. That track is so quick that I got there and tried to control what I got from the blocks and I think that fifth hurdle just came up on me. I rushed my technique because I got to the hurdle so quickly and it cost me."

Foster-Hylton won gold at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, held in Berlin, Germany; was second in 2003 in Paris, France; and third in Helsinki, Finland, two years later.

The sprint hurdler was one of the first to join coach Stephen Francis at the MVP Track Club, and it was the coach who talked her out of retirement in 2008, ahead of her gold-medal run a year later in Berlin.

andre.lowe@gleanerjm.com

Fact file

Name: Brigitte Foster-HyltonDate of birth: November 7, 1974Place of birth: St Elizabeth, JamaicaEvent: 100 metres hurdlesPersonal best: 12.45 seconds (nat'l record)

Top performances - 100m hurdles

2009 - Gold medallist at IAAF World Championships, Berlin - 12.51 seconds

2009 - Winner, IAAF World Athletics Final, Thessaloniki - 12.58

2008 - Sixth in final at Beijing Olympic Games - 12.76

2006 - Winner 10th IAAF World Cup, Athens - 12.67

2006 - Gold medallist - Melbourne Commonwealth Games gold - 12.76

2005 - Bronze medallist at IAAF World Championships, Helsinki - 12.76

2003 - Silver medallist at IAAF World Championships, Paris - 12.57

2003 - Pan American Games gold medallist, Santo Domingo - 12.67

2000 - Eighth in final at Sydney Olympic Games - 13.49