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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- As soon as she steps to the track for the opening round of the 100m on Sunday, August 26, Merlene Ottey will, yet again be making history. At 47, the Jamaican-born Slovenian sprinter will become the oldest female competitor ever at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, after being named to the Slovenian squad for Osaka. It will be her eighth appearance at the global championships.
The record she'll surpass is currently held by Briton Joyce Smith, who competed in the marathon at the inaugural world championships in 1983 when 45 years, 285 days old. But Ottey will most certainly be the only athlete in Osaka who also competed at those first world championships in Helsinki nearly 24 years ago, when she finished second in the 200m and fourth in the 100m for her native Jamaica. She later went on to capture world titles over the longer sprint in 1993 and 1995; in all she's collected 10 individual and four relay medals in world championship competition, five more than the nearest competitor on the list of multiple medallists, American Jearl Miles Clark, who's won nine.
11 days ago, Ottey clocked a season's best of 11.69 to take the Slovenian 100m title, but has the requisite 'B' entry standard (11.40) from an 11.34 race in Glasgow in August, 2006. Now over some recent minor illness, Ottey's promised to run faster in Osaka, and she'll have to to make her appearance something more than mere novelty.
While a marginal season's best will almost guarantee advancement from the opening round, she'll have to be significantly faster to reach the semi-finals. Since the 1999 edition of the championships in Seville, the slowest to advance from the quarter-finals clocked 11.37. Moving on in Seville was significantly more difficult, with 11.28 making the cut for the final 16.
Age records are nothing new to Ottey, who in recent years continues to lower age-group records in the 100. At the world championships, she's already the oldest 100m medallist (35 years 89 days, in 1995), the oldest 100m finalist (37 years, 85 days in 1997), the oldest 200m champion (35 years, 92 days, in 1995), and the oldest 200m medallist (37 years, 90 days, in 1997). In Osaka, she'll also break her own record as the oldest 100m competitor: in Paris in 2003, she was 43 years, 106 days old whe she finished sixth in the semi-finals.
Her eighth appearance at the meet will not, however, be a record. Eight women have already appeared in eight editions of the championships. Of those, German discus thrower Franka Dietzsch and 800m legend Maria Mutola of Mozambique, will be arriving in Osaka as strong medal contenders.
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