Heart disease forces Luo to quit

Luo Xuejuan was China's top medal hope in the pool

Olympic gold medallist Luo Xuejuan, one of China's main hopes for home glory at Beijing 2008, has retired because of a potentially fatal heart disease.

Luo, who turned 23 on Friday, won the 100m breaststroke gold medal in Athens 2004 and four breaststroke golds at the 2001 and 2003 world championships.

"I am very competitive but I have no other choice than to quit," Luo said.

"It means we have lost our best hope for gold medals at the 2008 Olympics," said head swimming coach Zhang Yadong.

"No-one else in the current squad can reach Luo's standing on the world stage... the Beijing Games have become an ever more arduous task for us."

After being given two months off last July for "physical problems" and "mental stress", Luo returned to winning ways at the Asian Games trials.

But she missed the trip to Doha after fainting during training last November, was diagnosed with either exhaustion or low blood pressure and dropped from the squad for the World Championships in March.