Olympic 200m bronze medallist Debbie Ferguson is eyeing one more Olympic Games before she retires.

Ferguson, from the Bahamas, improved on her fifth place showing in Sydney to take the 2004 Olympic bronze from lane 8 in Athens, a determined run having no one to draw on outside her. She also made the finals of the 100 metres in last year's Olympic Games coming 7th, just one place better than her run in 2000.

She concluded her Olympic campaign two days after the 200m final with a solid anchor leg in the 4x100m Relay final on 27 August. However, the same magic which had seen Ferguson bring home her country to gold in 2000 was not present in Greece, though the team made a brave defence of the title to finish fourth.

Ferguson, 28, and Chandra Sturrup, 33, were the only members of the original 2000 Olympic 'Golden Girls' squad to compete in Athens, with Savatheda Fynes, 30, and Pauline Davis, 38, now out of the picture. By the time of the next Olympics Ferguson will herself also be well into her 30's and she is conscious not to overstay her welcome in a sport which is among the most unforgiving to ageing performers.

A triple gold medallist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games (100m, 200m and relay) a year after taking the World Championships 200m silver medal, Ferguson is convinced that the 2008 Olympics will be the last major stage of her career.

“Definitely my longevity in the sport depends on what happens in 2008,” said Ferguson. “I see myself competing in the Olympics in Beijing and if I do well I will probably compete for one more year and that's it. I don't want to be competing beyond 2009. I don't want to be around too long. I want to be an asset to my country.”

Ferguson, a FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) Goodwill Ambassador has also won 200m titles at the 1999 Pan-AM Games, 2001 Goodwill Games and at the 2002 World Cup in what has already been a successful career.