Debbie Ferguson - Reuters

NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC)

Bahamian sprint ace Debbie Ferguson plans to quit international track and field within the next two years and make the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games her last Olympic appearance.

Ferguson, 31, is focusing on a successful Olympic year in 2008 and she plans to retire from track and field after the 2009 World Championship.

"The 2008 Olympic Games will be my last Olympics, and just like everyone else I want to go out with a bang. I'm so excited about next year I'm ready to start training right now," Ferguson told reporters in her native Bahamas.

In 2005, Ferguson married Bahamian businessman Adrian McKenzie and she plans to concentrate on family life after her track and field career.

4x100-metre

Ferguson, a member of the Bahamian team that won Olympic gold in the women's 4x100-metre sprint relay in Sydney seven years ago, has been part of a golden era in Bahamian track and field.

Their sprint relay success in Sydney 2000 followed their World Championship triumph in Spain in 1999 and she joined Pauline Davis-Thompson and Chandra Sturrup as world sprint stars winning a plethora of international medals and major IAAF Grand Prix events since the 1990s.

More recently, Chris Brown and Derrick Atkins have emerged as world-class competitors and Donald Thomas captured World Championship high jump gold in Osaka this summer, and Ferguson believes they are leaving a legacy for young Bahamians to emulate.