Baumann retires from athletics

Baumann won 5,000m Olympic gold in 1992

Former Olympic champion Dieter Baumann has announced his retirement from athletics.

The 38-year-old German had a frustrating time at the World Championships in Paris in August, pulling up in the men's 10,000m final.

After the race, Baumann said he stop running because of a lack of energy and denied suggestions that he would hang up his spikes.

But Baumann, who won the 5,000m at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, has now called time on his running career, and scrapped plans to race in November's New York marathon.

"My performance in Paris was not good enough for the New York marathon and I just thought, 'that is enough'," Baumann told German sports agency SID.

"Paris is a race that I will look back on if not the result."

The German endured some low points later in his career, and faced a battle to clear his name after testing positive for nandrolone in out-of-competition samples in October and November 1999.

Baumann, Germany's most vehement anti-drugs campaigner, claimed his toothpaste had been spiked with the drug.

But on the eve of the Sydney Olympics, the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Baumann from international competition for two years. A 12-month extension was added to that ban - but was later lifted.

He returned to the track in 2002 and grabbed silver in the 5,000m at the European Championships in Munich, but could not replicate that success in Paris.

Baumann, the first European to dip under 13 minutes for the 5,000m, will run his final race in Tubingen, Germany, on Sunday.