Posted: June 9, 2006

Athletics: For Ageless Ottey, European Championships Still A Possibility

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

Ljubljana, SLOVENIA -- After her first race in nearly two years, Merlene Ottey of Slovenia is leaving open the possibility that she may compete at the August’s European Championships.

Running against a 3.5 m/s headwind, Ottey, who celebrated her 46th birthday last month, won the 100 meters in 11.94 at the Rivas International Athletics Meeting near Madrid. It was the celebrated sprinter’s first race since the Olympic 200 meter semi-finals on August 24, 2004, where she suffered a hamstring injury.

“Well it was a very slow time,” Ottey said in an interview published on the European Athletics Association’s website, seemingly unimpressed with a performance that shaved more than 3/10s of a second from the world masters record for the age category, 12.25 by Germany’s Karin von Riewal. “Let’s forget about the time. I wish the wind had been behind me rather than in front of me, it was hard, it was difficult but the legs feel fine.”

Ottey, who has amassed a phenomenal 34 medals at major international competitions for her native Jamaica in a career which spans more than two-and-a-half decades, has lived in the small central European nation since 1999 and has represented Slovenia since 2002.

Ottey said she nearly retired after her injury in Athens, but reconsidered when the competitive juices starting to flow again.

“I didn’t like sitting at home so I decided to get the required surgery and just started training again.” She underwent surgery last year to reconnect a tendon to a bone. “They had to put three screws in it to reattach it but now it’s okay,” she said.

Ottey said she probably won’t be part of the Slovenian squad at the European Cup First League competition June 17-18, but still hasn’t entirely excluded the possibility of competing at the European Championships in August.

“I haven’t figured out the summer yet. I definitely don’t think the European Cup First League is possible as I’m not yet in shape but we’ll see how the rest of the training goes. If I’m running well in July then I’d like to go to Gothenburg.”

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