Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) President Garth Gayle has wished former national representative and 400m indoor record holder Akeem Bloomfield all the best as he confirmed that the athlete had signalled that he is retiring.

News broke on Thursday that Bloomfield, who starred at Kingston College and Auburn University, had started the process of resignation after he contacted the JAAA requesting that he be removed from the Registered Testing Pool with the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission.

“While we are disheartened at the news that such a talented athlete was ending his career, we respect his decision as obviously it was not an easy decision to make,” Gayle told the Jamaica Observer. “We however wish him all the best in whatever he chooses to pursue.”

Bloomfield, 27, set the national indoor record of 44.86 seconds in College Station, Texas, in March 2018. He was also the second-fastest Jamaican man over the outdoor 400m with his personal best 43.94 seconds set a few month later that had promised a lot but his career was interrupted often by injuries.

Bloomfield, who became the first Jamaican schoolboy to dip under 45.00 seconds and still holds the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ Athletics Championships Class One 400m record of 44.93 seconds, ran twice last year, once indoors and another outdoors and had withdrawn from the Racers Grand Prix after showing up last year.

The four-time Diamond League winner, once over the 200m, and World Athletics Championships finalist, was a two-time World Champs relay silver medallist, in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, and two years ago in Eugene, Oregon, and was also a part of the Jamaican team that took silver in the World Athletics Relays in Yokohama, Japan, in 2019.