RICHARD Davenport, arguably the best athlete ever to come out of the Forest, has retired from the sport.

As a junior athlete, Richard ran 400m in a time of 47mins 29secs – the third fastest time ever for a British under-20s runner.

A year later, he was just a split-second away from a bronze medal at the senior men's AAA finals and Steve Cram dubbed him 'by far the most outstanding young 400 metres talent in the country'.

The Great British Athletics' Writers Association also named him their junior male athlete of the year in 2004.

In 2005, however, he suffered a serious back injury which resulted in a three year lay-off and two major operations on his lower spine. Since then, his athletics career has been dogged by injury.

In 2011, Richard made genuine progress – coming second in the AAA National Championships and finishing fifth in the World University Games in Schenzhen , China . It left him on the cusp of the GB team.

However, competition in the 400m hurdles is fierce and the former Newnham School pupil has now called it a day.

Settled in London he is working for a market research company and playing five-a-side football for fun.

He told The Forester: "Retirement was always on my mind right from when I found out about my injury and the need for an operation back in 2005/06. To combat this I set myself many short term targets, with a personal best being beyond my wildest dreams and ultimately the perfect way to retire if I ever reached it.

For more on Richard's retirement, pick up a copy of The Forester.