Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes, whose career was an ultimate triumph of perseverance over adversity, has decided to conclude her international career at the age of 35.
Admitting to a lack of motivation after winning the 800-1,500 double at last August's Athens Olympics, Holmes will make her British farewell at the Sheffield Grand Prix on August 21.
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"If you look at my career, I've won 13 medals from Commonwealth Games, world championships, Europeans and Olympic Games so I've got nothing to prove to myself or anybody else," Holmes told the BBC.
"I've achieved my dreams so now I'm in a position to say, 'well I can do what I want'."
Helsinki, which staged the first world championships in 1983, would provide an ideal stage for Holmes to finish in style.
She won a silver medal in the Finnish capital at the 1994 European championships and was a consistent performer at the highest level without managing to win a global title until the Athens Games.
INJURY TOLL
An athlete with less determination than the former British Army sergeant would have given up long ago.
Once asked to describe her injuries, Holmes drew a deep breath and said: "Let's see -- hips, femoral nerve, calcification of the hip bone, lower leg problems, shin problems, calf injury."
Before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Holmes did not race at all from February to August but still managed to pick up a bronze in the 800 metres.
Her constant battle with injuries prompted twice Olympian Sebastian Coe, who twice failed to clinch the double Holmes managed in Athens, to write she was a "Rolls Royce athlete being given back-street servicing".
National lottery funding helped turn Holmes's career around.
She was monitored closely at training camps before Athens, where she had decided to have one last attempt at both the 800 and 1,500.
"Taking on both races was going to be physically and psychologically very demanding so I sat down with the medical team and worked out the best way of recovering," she said.
Fully fit at last, Holmes ran two perfect races in Athens, starting with the 800. Coe, who witnessed them both, found himself almost lost for superlatives.
"It was textbook middle-distance running," he said. "It has been just perfect. In historic terms, and athletics terms, what Kelly did was absolutely supreme."
Holmes would like a world title to add to her Olympic golds before she retires.
"If I'm fit enough to do the worlds and I think I have a great chance of a medal I'll go. If not, I won't."
After retirement Holmes will concentrate on helping a new generation of potential Olympians.
"One of my plans is to keep helping these young athletes and passing on my experience," she said. "Middle distance running is the strongest it's ever been in Britain at the moment and I think we'll have some great athletes in the future."
