(16/01/2005)

Morocco's Nezha Bidouane has officially announced her decision to retire from competitive athletics.

IAAF's Mohammed Benchrif reported the former two-time women’s World 400m Hurdles champion announcement at a get- together organised by the Morroccan national federation to honour the country's best athletes, coaches and officials for 2004.

The 35-year-old Bidouane took her competitive bow last October when she won the 400m Hurdles gold medal in 55.98 seconds at the 10th Pan-Arab Games in Algiers.

In a remarkable career spanning over a decade, she won the World 400m Hurdles gold in 1997 and 2001, Silver in Seville in 1999 and a bronze medalat the Sydney Olympics among many laurels.

Bidouane still hold the African record of 52.90 and she remains the only athlete to have won more than one World title in the women's 400m hurdles.

She said of her retirement: "I have a peaceful conscience.

"All beautiful stories have an end, and at the hour that they come to the end of their path they are embellished by one’s grand achievements."