ONE of Wales' greatest ever athletes Jamie Baulch has announced he will hang up his spikes and retire from the sport after next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The 32-year-old from Risca has decided to call it a day and concentrate on his new Sports Management company that he has recently set-up.

Baulch has been contemplating retirement ever since failing to qualify for last year's Olympic Games in Athens.

The popular 400m sprinter two year's ago split from long-term coach Linford Christie and he moved to Atlanta, America and linked up with Nigerian coach Innocent Egbunike in an attempt to rescue his career.

However, he never managed to hit the heights of the mid to late nineties and where he established himself as one of the most successful indoor athletes Great Britain has had as well as making a name for himself as one of the leading one-lap sprinters in the world.

In fact Baulch has a glittering trophy cabinet which includes an Olympic silver medal, a World Championship silver and bronze medal, and a Commonwealth silver and a bronze medal.

He also has five World Indoor Championship medals to his name while competing for GB.

In announcing his retirement he said: "I've had a great career but I know when it is right to retire and I think after Melbourne that will be the perfect time for me.

"I can't see myself going on any longer then that, I've had a great innings and a great career and I have lots of medals in my cabinet and it is time to move on.

"I've set up my own sports management company and I'm really involved in that and I'm looking forward to making a success of that."

Baulch will skip August's World Championships in Helsinki so that he can concentrate fully on making next March's Commonwealth Games.

He said: "I'm going to have start to get back into some full-time training.

"I want to qualify for the games and make the individual and relay teams and then after that I will hang up my spikes and call it a day."

He added: "I have no interest in the World Championships at all.

"It is going to be so hard to be competitive with the way the American and Jamaican sprinters are running at the moment that I think it would be better for me to concentrate on qualifying for the Commonwealth games.

"I would like to do both the relay and individual, but I will have to train hard as there are some very good athletes coming through and it will be a big ask, so my best bet probably is the 4x400m relay.

"Putting on the Welsh vest one last time is so important to me and I'm desperate to go and hopefully get one last medal."

And Baulch who has been a great servant to Welsh athletics over the past 15 years is hoping that he can captain the Wales side over in Australia.

He said: "I would love to skipper the side. It is my last championships and that would be a huge honour.

"It would be great to be given that task at next year's Commonwealth games, but I'm just taking it one step at a time and I've got to there first.

"The Commonwealth is a great competition second only to the Olympics in my opinion and we have a great squad in the 400m in myself, Tim Benjamin, Matt Elias, Gareth Warburton, Iwan Thomas and Rhys Williams and hopefully we can bring a gold medal home for Wales."

Baulch will have a chance to qualify for next year's Commonwealth games at the inaugural Centenary games in Cardiff on August 29.

The competition doubles up as Wales' Commonwealth games trials and will be a key indicator for selectors ahead of the team announcement in October.