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Sprinter Joe Chadwick – “Guernsey’s fastest man” – has retired from athletics at the age of 24 because of injury.<\/b><\/p>\n
He struck gold in the 100m final at the 2019 Island Games in Gibraltar at the age of 17 – one of three gold medals he won at the Games – to become the first sprinter from Guernsey to win the event since 2005 with a time of 10.82 seconds.<\/p>\n
Chadwick also represented the island at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he ran a time of 10.60 in the 100m – a record for the island which still stands. He also won 100m silver on home soil in the 2023 Island Games. <\/p>\n
He has now reluctantly decided to hang up his spikes but said it was not a decision he took lightly. <\/p>\n
“It’s been a slow decision,” Chadwick told BBC Radio Guernsey. <\/p>\n
“It’s taken a while to beat me down, I’m a reasonably stubborn athlete. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into the sport and if it was my choice I would still be going.<\/p>\n
“But I had a final conversation with my physio, who I’ve been working closely with for years, and the idea of the injury possibly getting worse – especially after surgery in August – made it all start to feel a little bit real.<\/p>\n
“I always told myself that the only way I’d be able to leave the sport, having not achieved what I wanted to, would be to leave no leaf unturned and still fail.<\/p>\n
“And it finally felt the sport was just saying ‘no’ to me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n