| Olympic medal record | ||
| Women’s Athletics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Sydney 2000 | 400m |
Katharine Merry (born 21 September 1974 in Dunchurch, near Rugby) is a former English female sprinter.
Contents |
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 junior team for a record 6 years, which included 5 Junior Championships winning a total of 5 medals. She transferred into a successful senior athlete with her Olympic medal in Sydney, in the 'Race of the Games' and the following year became World number 1. She was coached by fellow Olympic medallist Linford Christie in his Cardiff based training squad which included fellow Olympic medallist Darren Campbell. She is also with Chistie's sports agency Nuff Respect. Merry still holds various UK age record bests, including U/13 High Jump and several sprints. Also world age records, including aged 14, 7.35 for 60m indoors.
After suffering from a bone spur growth on her right heel bone, and after 2 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 year 2000 form. Despite this, she still ended the 2001 season as the world's fastest female 400m runner.
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,and also is a regular part of BBC 5 Live, including working in Beijing at the Olympics for the BBC.[3]. She also presents for Sky TV and Channel Five. Currently she is the solo infield presenter for all the British Grand Prix meetings. Merry also does corporate speaking engagements, whilst running a free sports mentoring website elitementor.com with Christie and Campbell.
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 |
Personal Bests
| Date | Event | Venue | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200m | 22.76
22.83 (indoors) UK Record |
||
| 400m | 49.59
50.53 (indoors) |
References
External links
- Merry at Nuff Respect, Linford Christie's agency
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This article about a track and field Olympic medalist of the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| Preceded by Bev Kinch |
British Champion in 100m 1994 |
Succeeded by Paula Dunn Thomas |
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