28th October 2014

Sanders Announces Retirement

28 October 2014

Nicola Sanders (coach: Tony Lester), the 2007 world 400m silver medallist, has announced her retirement from athletics.

Sanders told her Twitter followers today that it was time to call time on her career following an injury-interrupted few years.

“I’ve had a brilliant time during my athletics career through all the ups and downs but the time had come to hang up my spikes.”

She told Athletics Weekly: “I haven’t really competed over the last couple of years and even before that I was struggling with various injuries that stopped me performing at the level I could.

“With all that going in your head you can’t really face going through all the training not being able to compete anymore.”

One of the defining moments in her career came in the 2007 IAAF World Championships 400m final in Osaka, which ended in dramatic style. With 50m to go, Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica was leading a British pair of Sanders and Christine Ohuruogu (Lloyd Cowan), but a last ditch dip for the line saw them edge the gold and silver medals. Ohuruogu took the gold by four hundredths of a second ahead of Sanders who collected the silver medal, in arguably one of the greatest races in recent memory.
 
The 32 year old enjoyed a magnificent career as she established herself as one of the best female 400m runners in British history. She finishes her career fourth on the all-time list over 400m thanks to her 49.65 clocking in Osaka seven years ago. The Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow athlete still holds the British 400m indoor record of 50.02 which she set in Birmingham in 2007.

Her last major medal came at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor championships in Istanbul. Sanders managed to coerce her body into being healthy to form part of the gold medal winning 4x400m relay team. With the 2007 European 400m indoor title and numerous additional relay medals to add to her collection, Sanders can reflect on a successful career.