Heck, I could have beaten Merlene — when I was 17 and if she were 46. But today in Glasgow, she was unstoppable, winning the Scottish 100 title in 11.34, her season best and another W45 world record. At the start of this season the listed world record was 12.25 by Germany’s Karin von Riewel in 1996. Taking nearly a second off any 100 record is unheard of. Now hear this: Her 11.34 is the age-graded equivalent of a 10.12 for open-age athletes. Yup, time to redraw those tables.

Final results (but not a wind reading) were reported thusly:
T11 – 100m Women – Final
Pos Num Name Representing Perf
1 358 Merlene Ottey Slovenia 11.34
2 226 Susan Deacon Edinburgh Southern Harriers 11.69
3 233 Sara Whigham Edinburgh Southern Harriers 11.96
4 227 Louise Dickson Edinburgh Southern Harriers 12.01
5 229 Lucy Evans Sale Harriers 12.24
6 220 Lauren Arthur Gateshead Harriers 12.37
7 230 Nicola Gossman City Of Glasgow AC 12.43
The Sunday Times of London, meanwhile, recalled Merlene’s brush with anti-doping authorities in 1999:
There were injuries, the most recent requiring both her hamstrings to be reattached to the bone by metal screws. Finally there is the positive drugs test that kept her from competing at the 1999 world championships before it was turned over by the IAAF in arbitration.
That reversal, the result of failures in the nandrolone test procedure, was criticised by the head of the IAAF, Lamine Diack, who said: “I cannot defend the decision.” Ottey has been left to try that herself. She has crammed so much into her career in the 26 years since her first championship appearance, a bronze at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but not another failed test.
Her results are remarkable either side of the controversy and she has outlasted generations of opponents whose careers were also tainted by failed tests or public accusations: Florence Griffith-Joyner, whose 1988 world records at 100m and 200m defied Ottey and who was accused by her former USA teammate Carl Lewis in his autobiography; Katrin Krabbe, her vanquisher over both distances in Tokyo in 1991, whose career was ended by a three-year doping ban; Kelli White, the double sprint champion at the 2003 World Championships who was banned after failing a test in Paris and admitted taking a banned substance; Marion Jones, whose former husband, CJ Hunter, told federal investigators that she had injected herself with EPO, a growth hormone in 2000.
“I can’t cry about it,” says Ottey of the questions over her rivals across the years. “That is the way the system was. Unfortunately, there was no testing. People were not drug tested and what can you do? You look back and wonder, ‘How many (of my opponents were cheating)?’ The sport has suffered. With random drug testing it is much fairer, it’s cleaner. But with something like Olympic champion) Jason Gatlin, it’s a surprise. I can’t believe someone slipped through the system and was able to get through a competition.
“Look, when it comes to hormones, anything is possible. If there is a chance that something can go wrong (with the tests) then there can be some mistakes. I heard that this is a new test, a new method so this is what I’m worried about. Are we 100% sure? Not 99.9% but 100% sure that this test is accurate? If we are 100% sure then it is fair, but if not then there is a question mark.”
It is not the vehement condemnation of dopers from an athlete in a unique position to give it, but it is the reaction of one who knows her reputation will never fully recover from what history records as an error on the part of the testers.
Ottey brings a lot of history to Grangemouth and echoes of greatness. She knows she can’t crack 11 seconds in the 100m any more, but she can’t stop running, something she has been threatening on and off since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
“Every time I would go somewhere and say I’m going to retire I would produce my best moments,” she says. “In 1996 I ran a personal best so I thought, ‘Well, why should I stop?’ In 2004 I ran 11.09 so I was like ‘Wow, why should I stop?’ “If I’m running and these girls are still running slow… I mean, I ran 11.4 (in Gothenburg) and still made it to the semi-finals. I mean, come on. It’s not my fault, you know? The slower they run the more they open the door for me.”

Thanks to the Track & Field News message board, my main source for masters news, we learn that Merlene Ottey at age 46 has run the 100 in 11.94 seconds — into a nearly 8 mph headwind! Her stunning time, easily a W45 world record, is equivalent to an open mark of 10.658 seconds. An 11.94 would nearly have qualified for the M45 final at San Sebastian worlds. And she becomes the oldest female sprinter to crack 12 seconds — a time that most masters men would be thrilled to achieve.

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