Ottey, 50, eyes worlds
Source: Agencies |
August 1, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
VETERAN sprinter Merlene Ottey is already eyeing a spot at next year's world championships in South Korea after becoming the oldest athlete to compete at a European championships yesterday.
The Jamaican-born 50-year-old, whose haul of nine Olympic medals is more than any other woman's in track and field, has been competing for adopted country Slovenia since 2002 and was by far the biggest attraction at a muggy Olympic Stadium in Barcelona as she anchored its 4x100 meters relay team.
Although the team failed to qualify for today's final, the remarkably youthful-looking Ottey was excited to have made history and even refused to rule out an appearance at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
"Yeah, it's a great feeling," she told reporters.
Clad in a pale blue-and-white running vest and baby blue, skin-tight shorts, she added: "I find it a challenge and it's a joy competing against people younger than me."
Ottey, who has become known as "the Queen of the Track", won her first Olympic medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when she claimed bronze in the 200 meters and has won another 33 major medals in the three decades since.
She said she planned to train in California or Florida to prepare a bid to qualify for the world championships and laughed when asked if she was aiming to compete in London. These days she runs about a second slower than her personal best of 10.74 set in Milan in 1996.
The Jamaican-born 50-year-old, whose haul of nine Olympic medals is more than any other woman's in track and field, has been competing for adopted country Slovenia since 2002 and was by far the biggest attraction at a muggy Olympic Stadium in Barcelona as she anchored its 4x100 meters relay team.
Although the team failed to qualify for today's final, the remarkably youthful-looking Ottey was excited to have made history and even refused to rule out an appearance at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
"Yeah, it's a great feeling," she told reporters.
Clad in a pale blue-and-white running vest and baby blue, skin-tight shorts, she added: "I find it a challenge and it's a joy competing against people younger than me."
Ottey, who has become known as "the Queen of the Track", won her first Olympic medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when she claimed bronze in the 200 meters and has won another 33 major medals in the three decades since.
She said she planned to train in California or Florida to prepare a bid to qualify for the world championships and laughed when asked if she was aiming to compete in London. These days she runs about a second slower than her personal best of 10.74 set in Milan in 1996.
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