Katharine Merry

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Olympic medal record
Women’s Athletics
Bronze Sydney 2000 400m

Katharine Merry (born September 21, 1974 at Dunchurch, Rugby), is a former English female sprinter.

Contents

[edit] Biography

A member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club, Merry won a bronze medal for the 400 metre sprint at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Merry had a unique career that spanned 20 years. She was the fastest girl in the world aged 14 years old, and started her international GB career aged just 13, and stayed on the team for a record 6 years. She transferred into a successful senior athlete with her Olympic medal in Sydney and following year became World number 1. She then joined fellow Olympic medalist Linford Christie's Cardiff based elite training squad and sports agency Nuff Respect, which included training partner Darren Campbell.

After suffering from a bone spur growth on her right heel bone, and after 3 operations, in July 2005 Merry announced her official retirement from athletics.[1] She had been suffering from the injury since 2001 and was struggling to get it healed fully. It had prevented her from getting back into proper training meaning she could not get back to her 2000 form. Despite this, she still ended the 2001 season as the world's fastest female 400m runner.

[edit] After retirement

Merry now mentors British Junior athletes,[2] and works in the media on Radio and TV including presenting for the BBC around the 2006 Commonwealth Games,[3] and presenting for Sky TV. Merry also does corporate speaking engagements, whilst running a sports mentoring website elitementor.com with Christie and Campbell.

[edit] Achievements

Year Tournament Venue Result Event
1990 IAAF World Junior Championships Plovdiv, Bulgaria 2nd 4x100m Relay
1992 IAAF World Junior Championships Seoul, Korea 6th 100m
1993 European Junior Championships San Sebastian, Spain 2nd 100m
1993 European Junior Championships San Sebastian, Spain 1st 200m
1993 European Junior Championships San Sebastian, Spain 1st 4x100m Relay
1994 European Cup Birmingham, Great Britain 2nd 100m
1994 European Cup Birmingham, Great Britain 2nd 200m
1996 1996 Summer Olympics Atlanta, United States 8th 4x100m Relay
1998 European Championships Budapest, Hungary 3rd 4x400m Relay
1999 IAAF World Championships Seville, Spain 5th 400m
2000 2000 Summer Olympics Sydney, Australia 3rd 400m

[edit] Personal Bests

Date Event Venue Time
200m 22.76
400m 49.59

50.53 (indoors)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Katharine Merry: 'I had surgery twice, then illness almost stopped my breathing. In the end, I couldn't go on' | Sport | The Observer
  2. ^ BBC SPORT | Athletics | British legends get mentor roles
  3. ^ Nuff Respect

[edit] External links

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