FORMER Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion Sally Gunnell says the sight of amputees in war torn Angola persuaded her not to quit athletics despite an acute Achilles tendon injury.

Gunnell, who won Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992, acknowledged she was very close to announcing her retirement after failing to keep her title last year in Atlanta, where she broke down in the final and had to be carried from the track in agony.

"Then I went down to Angola for the Red Cross and I saw people who'd obviously had limbs blown off by landmines and I'm thinking hang on a minute, I haven't got a problem here, it's these guys who have got the problem'," she said yesterday.