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Guerrouj announces his retirement
 A tearful El Guerrouj announces his retirement decision to the media. CASABLANCA, Morocco -- Morocco's Olympic 5,000 and 1,500 meters champion Hicham El Guerrouj has announced his retirement from athletics. "I hope the authorities and Moroccan athletes will continue to work so Moroccan athletics continues to be strong," he said. The 31-year-old, considered the greatest 1,500 meters runner in history, has not competed since the 2004 Athens Games. He missed last season with a virus and pulled out of March's indoor world championships in Moscow with a back injury. El Guerrouj's retirement was widely expected in Morocco after he told local reporters in March that he spent sleepless nights pondering his future out of athletics. The Moroccan holds the world record of three minutes 26.0 seconds for the 1,500 and has won the world title over the distance four times. He also has the world marks for the mile (3:43.13) and 2,000 meters (4:44.79). His 1,500-5,000 double in Athens was the first since Finn Paavo Nurmi in 1924 and exorcised the demons from his previous Olympic appearances. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, El Guerrouj fell at the bell and four years later in Sydney he was outsprinted by Kenyan Noah Ngeny. But in Athens, El Guerrouj confirmed his greatness in emphatic fashion. He won the 1,500m final in style, pouncing at 800 and holding off Kenyan rival Bernard Lagat. Four days later, he won the most eagerly awaited track clash of the Games in the 5,000 against Ethiopia's 10,000 meters champion Kenenisa Bekele. El Guerrouj won the first of his four world titles in 1997, also in Athens, ending Algerian Noureddine Morceli's six-year reign as champion. He shattered Morceli's 1,500 world record by over a second a year later and became practically unbeatable until suffering a shock defeat in Rome in July 2004. The Moroccan finished eighth on the track where he had set his 1,500 and mile world records for only his fourth loss in eight years, two of which were at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics Games. El Guerrouj said his form had been affected by breathing problems but he appeared to have put his health problems behind him at the Olympics. "Hicham is a living legend of our sport," said Lamine Diack, president of the sport's governing body, the IAAF. "He has brightened up the athletics' world with his excellent performances, impressed with his elegant running style, and drawn gasps because of his determination to always push back the boundaries of his own limits. "But what I want to remember about his exemplary career is not only his multiple records, world records and other hard-earned honors, but above all else, his generosity and kindness as a human being," Diack added. 
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