Ottey misses Euro final, points to 2007 IAAF worlds
Merlene Ottey missed the finals of the open 100 at the European Championships and was immediately pressed on naming a retirement date. Heck, she’s only 46! One story reported: “She was in contention until 10 meters from the finish, when she ran out of steam. ‘See you next year, Ottey said, indicating that she may be planning to compete at next year’s world championships in Japan.”
Here’s another story:
Ottey declines to set a date for retirement
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Veteran Slovenian sprinter Merlene Ottey, who represented Jamaica at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, declined on Wednesday to name a retirement date.
“I don’t really set dates,” Ottey told reporters after just missing out on a place in the women’s 100 metres final at the European championships.
Ottey, 46, finished her semi-final in fifth place in 11.44 seconds, just three hundreths of a second behind Poland’s Daria Onysko who grabbed the last qualifying place of the heat.
“I gave all I have, I ran at 110 percent, but I lack training. You saw I was pushing at the end, that is the sign that I can still run with the younger runners,” said Ottey, who won the 200 metres world titles in 1993 and 1995.
“I love what I’m doing. I looked around (after the race) to see what people were running, I saw some of them ran 11-fours, so I guess I have chance to come back out there.”
“Seriously, if my body stays healthy I want to run next year. I was able to achieve 11.40 after only a short period of training.”
Ottey, who will not take part in the 200 metres, resumed training only a month ago after returning from tendon injuries.
