KENT'S double gold medal-winning athlete Kelly Holmes admits she has lost the hunger to compete at the highest levels of athletics.

While she is playing down talk of retirement, she admits her motivation levels are waning after her triumphs in the Olympics.

Speaking at her training camp in South Africa, Holmes, from Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, said: “I haven’t made any plans at all. I hope to do a couple of races if everything goes smoothly, but I haven’t made any immediate plans that would include the European Indoors (in Madrid in March).

“That would depend on if I feel I’m in shape to go there and do any good.”

But Holmes admitted that she no longer felt the same desire to succeed: “I don’t think I will ever have the same focus or the same hunger, but I will be determined that when I do apply myself to something I’m not going to run just for the sake of running.”

At 34, Holmes now has the happy dilemma of wondering what do to next that having achieved her lifetime’s ambitions.

“I’ve put everything emotionally and physically into what I’ve achieved. I never expected what happened in Athens. I didn’t have any plans for retirement and I still don’t have any plans to retire, but I do have to be realistic about the future.”