Ottey obliterates W40 record in 200
Science should study Merlene Ottey. On May 10, Merlene turned 43. On May 25, she celebrated with a masters W40 record at 200 meters, clocking an incredible 23.33 at a meet in Celje, Slovenia. News of Merlene’s latest masters record came from Marty Post of Runner’s World Online, who spotted Merlene’s name zithromax in the latest European athletics rankings.
Here’s how she showed up against the Eurokids:
22.96A 0.0 2 Natalya Safronnikova BLR 73 Pretoria 4-4
23.23 1 Charoula Bouda GRE 80 Heraklion 25-5
23.25 0.0 1 Irina Lenskiy ISR 71 Tel Aviv 12-5
23.33 1 Merlene Ottey SLO 60 Celje 25-523.46 0.0 1 Anna Pacholak POL 80 Warszawa 18-5
23.49 1.5 1 Olga Kaidantzi GRE 79 Edessa 14-5
23.49 0.2 1 Marion Wagner GER 78 Braunschweig 24-5
23.51 1 Mariya Lisnichenko RUS 80 Moskva 16-5
23.53 1.5 3r1 Solene Desert FRA 82 Fort-de-France 26-4
Here’s a report on the meet, which I can’t fully translate.
It says:
“Celje, 25. maja (STA) – Tekmovalke AK Gorice iz Nove Gorice (16.049 tock) in tekmovalci Almonta iz Slovenske Bistrice (17.778) so bili najboljši na ekipnem atletskem državnem prvenstvu (DP) v Celju. Branilci naslova iz celjskega Kladivarja so bili drugi v obeh konkurencah. Clanice ženske štafete Gorice Nina Mucic, Minka Gartner, Radmila Vukmirovic in Meta Macus so s casom 3:45,82 izboljšale skoraj dvajset let star slovenski klubski rekord, ki so ga s casom 3:47,07 dosegle tekacice Olimpije 19. junija leta 1983 v Sarajevu.***
Primož Kozmus (Fit Brežice), ki je okrepil Almont, je slavil v metu kladiva, s 77,09 m pa se je približal svojemu državnemu rekordu (78,58 m) in je za skoraj 30 m prehitel najbližjega zasledovalca. Merlene Ottey (Mass) je zmagala v teku na 200 m, vendar je s 23,33 za skoraj šest desetink zaostala za državnim rekordom Alenke Bikar (22,76).”
Jakob Nielsen of the Merlene Ottey Fan Club reports that her 23.33 was into a wind, and that she also ran an 11.44 100 that day. Ottey thus has done a Michael Johnson on the 200 record, crushing the altitude-best 24.66 by amoxil Chile’s Sara Montecinos in 1994 and nonaltitude best of 24.70 by Czech Republic’s Zdenka Musinská in 1997. She also improves on her previously unacknowledged (by me) 23.93 on May 26, 2002, in Velenje. She also ran 23.93 indoors on January 28, 2003, in Wien.
The listed World Masters Athletics record for W40 is 24.84 by American Phil Raschker at age 42 in 1989.
According to the WMA Age-Graded Tables, 23.33 at age 43 is worth an open time of 21.41, with an percentage standard of 101.09 — simply other-worldly. It’s comparable to the world record of 21.34 by Florence Griffith Joyner.
If Merlene were running in the lasix United States today, she’d be No. 5 on the M40 list for 200. Incredible.
