ATHLETICS:IN A FINAL twist to the highly controversial career of the Cork runner Cathal Lombard, a brief statement released yesterday evening announced his retirement from competitive athletics - less than two weeks after he made his sensational return from a two-year drugs ban to win a national cross-country title.

Lombard had indicated his intention to chase the Olympic qualifying time in the marathon, eyeing the Rotterdam race on April 13th. Instead he's decided to suddenly walk away from the sport, at age 32, despite his efforts to get back into competitive shape over the past two years.

In his statement, Lombard merely confirmed his "retirement from competitive athletics" and said he wished to thank those that supported him "over many years".

So ends one of the most contentious careers in Irish athletics, which saw Lombard failing a drugs test in July of 2004, for the use of the illegal endurance-boosting hormone erythropoietin (EPO), following some dramatic improvements and just before he was due to run the Athens Olympic Games.

On being caught, Lombard readily admitted using EPO, and was handed the automatic two-year ban.

He was all but forgotten until late last year, when he finished second at the Cork cross-country championships. He followed that last Saturday week with a startling win at the national interclubs championships in Belfast.

Lombard received a distinctly muted reaction to that victory; the runner-up, Alistair Cragg, described his past drug taking as "disgusting", and the third-placed Vinny Mulvey refused to offer the customary handshake.

Lombard declined his place on the Ireland team for the World Cross Country in Edinburgh on March 30th, apparently to concentrate on marathon training.

What has made him change his mind on that is unclear, though he did also indicate new interests in a legal practice in Mallow (he is a solicitor by profession).

Cragg, meanwhile, had this to say on hearing news of Lombard's retirement: "Yeah, I am relieved actually. He wasn't good for the sport's image. It's weird that he should work so hard to get into shape and then leave, but good luck to him."

The Olympic Council of Ireland had declined to comment on Lombard's potential Olympic qualification, except to say they did not currently support lifetime bans as imposed by the British Olympic Association on their offenders.

Lombard's retirement also ends debate on that issue in Irish athletics, at least for now.