ATHLETICS NEWS - Britain's Greg Rutherford who won Olympic long jump gold on 'Super Saturday' at the 2012 Olympics in London will retire at the end of the season he announced.
The 31-year-old – who won gold on the same night as fellow Britons Jessica Ennis-Hill and Mo Farah won gold in the heptathlon and the 10 000 metres respectively and followed three other British golds that day – told The Guardian a persistent pain in his ankle had forced his decision.
Rutherford – the first British man to win Olympic long jump gold since Lynn Davies in 1964 – hopes to have one last championship hurrah in winning a third European crown in Berlin in August before drawing the curtain on his stellar 13-year career.
"As an athlete you often have pain, whether it's training niggles or serious injuries, but with my ankle it is like having a dull toothache all the time," he said.
"I just don't want to be in pain every single day of my life, which is how things currently are.
"At times I am in so much pain I can't even sit on the floor and play with my two kids."
