28 February 2007Former World Pole Vault champion Dmitri Markov of Australia has been forced to retire due to a chronic foot injury.
Markov, 31, will bow out in Friday night's IAAF World Athletics Tour meet at Melbourne's Olympic Park.
Markov finished sixth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics representing Belarus before emigrating to Australia the following year. He improved to fifth at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Markov's career highlight came at the following year's World championships when he claimed the gold medal with a personal best clearance of 6.05m.
Only peerless Ukrainian Sergey Bubka has ever jumped higher. Markov has competed in a couple of domestic meets this season, but the foot injury made it impossible for him to train for days afterwards.
He will make his swansong in a world-class meet at Olympic Park also featuring three other members of pole vault's elite six-metre club - Australian Paul Burgess and Americans Toby Stevenson and Brad Walker - and last year's world No.1 Steve Hooker.
