Ashia Hansen has announced her retirement, pulling out of this weekend’s Aviva Olympic Trials and National Championships, due to injury. One of the greats of British athletics, Hansen’s career highlights include breaking the World Indoor record with a jump of 15m16 to win gold at the European Indoor Championships in 1998, winning two World Indoor titles, 1999 and 2003, and Commonwealth Gold in 2002. Hansen was also awarded an MBE in 2003.

After a devastating knee injury at the European Cup in 2004, Hansen made several attempts to make her return to the top level. She had jumped once this season, recording a modest 13m31 at a meeting in Greece in June.

Explaining the reasons behind her decision to retire Hansen said:

“It would have been great to have competed at the Aviva National Championships this weekend, but sadly it’s not to be. I’m just not in a position to compete at the level I would want to. It had just become clear to me that I can no longer train through the pain of injury as I used to do. It’s time to take the pressure of myself. I can have few complaints though given what I have achieved in my career. Looking back I held a world record and I earned an MBE as well as all the pleasure I have taken from being involved in athletics.”

A presentation will be made to Hansen at the Trials on Sunday in recognition of her contribution to British athletics.