BURNLEY'S Commonwealth Games golden boy Craig Heap was honoured by his home town yesterday -- after announcing his retirement.

The gymnast trained at the Thompson Centre for many years before he captained the England gymnastics team to Commonwealth gold in Manchester.

Mayor of Burnley Coun Gordon Birtwistle led the civic "thank you" with a touching speech in his honour.

He said: "We think that it is appropriate to place on record the borough's appreciation of Craig's most recent achievement.

"Craig stands out as an inspiration to the local sporting population. He has brought credit not only on himself and his family but to the people of his borough.

"We have other athletes who will be delighted and encouraged by his achievements and this is the outlook which sustains a healthy community."

The Mayor presented Craig with an engraved glass tankard which was inscribed: "English champion gymnast and Commonwealth Games gold medal gymnast, August 2002."

Craig's family, people who helped him from the Thompson Centre and a representative from Sports England were among the invited guests at the reception.

After a flurry of speculation about Craig's future, he finally confirmed that he would not be going to the 2006 Olympics.

Craig said: "It is great being in the limelight and I will miss all that, especially after the reception I received in Manchester, but that isn't always everything.

"It is hard trying to get funding year in, year out and I now feel the time is right to retire on a high note, when I am at the peak of my career."

Craig, 29, who was born in Burnley, took the decision after he and his 2000 Olympian fiancee Paula Thomas set up their own company.

With the help of two other partners, Scott Martin and Dan Hardie, who the couple met through gymnastics, they went about setting up CDS Multi Sport, which aims to show youngsters that sports is for all.

The four are currently in negotiations with various sponsors to help get the programme up and running in October.

Paula, 21, said: "A lot of schools in Burnley are interested because of Craig. We aim to start in the Burnley schools and then take it further afield to other parts of the country."

Craig and Paula will be going into nurseries and schools to allow children to sample their varied fitness programme and healthy eating advice.

Craig added: "We want to show everybody that, no matter how good you are at sport, you can still have fun by taking part."

If anybody is interested in sponsoring the new venture then they should contact Craig on 07971 850 244.