Dai Greene, a former 400-metre hurdles world champion who also won the European and Commonwealth titles, has retired from competitive athletics at the age of 38. The Welshman says coaching is his next goal and he has already assisted in mentoring other athletes.
Greene had tremendous success in the 400-metre hurdles as well as the 400-metre run; the only thing missing from his outstanding track career was an Olympic medal. The peak of his success was winning the 400-metre hurdles gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu after helping Great Britain win the silver medal in the 4×400-metre relay two years earlier in Berlin.
Greene won the 2010 European and Commonwealth titles, first capturing gold in Barcelona for Great Britain and then in Delhi for Wales.
On battling injuries
However, Greene was never able to reach such heights of achievement again due to a series of injury issues. In 2018, he claimed that difficulties with a hernia mesh had caused him to lose five years of his career. He was left bitter and frustrated after his surgery to fix a small hernia.
Greene said on social media: “Despite my best efforts over the past few years, I have been unable to participate in one more competitive season in the sport… The arrival of my daughter in December prompted my decision to stop trying to return to competition.”
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He added: “My career can be seen as having two halves. By the age of 25 I had won everything in the sport except for the Olympics, yet I feel I never truly fulfilled my potential…. The years between 2013 and 2016 should have been dedicated to honing my skills and maximizing my talent, but a routine surgery gone wrong derailed those dreams… Subsequent corrective surgeries meant I was never able to return to my peak performance, though I occasionally caught glimpses of the athlete I once was.”
Source: BBC