- Katharine Merry
Katharine Merry (born
21 September 1974 atDunchurch , Rugby) is a former English femalesprinter .Biography
A member of the
Birchfield Harriers athletics club, Merry won a bronze medal for the 400 metre sprint at the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney ,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 'sCardiff based elite training squad and sports agency Nuff Respect, which included training partnerDarren 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. [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1580102,00.html Katharine Merry: 'I had surgery twice, then illness almost stopped my breathing. In the end, I couldn't go on' | Sport | The Observer ] ] 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.After retirement
Merry now mentors British Junior athletes, [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4910440.stm BBC SPORT | Athletics | British legends get mentor roles ] ] and works in the media on Radio and TV including presenting for the
BBC around the2006 Commonwealth Games , [ [http://www.nuff-respect.co.uk/clients_katharine.htm Nuff Respect ] ] and presenting for Sky TV. Merry also does corporate speaking engagements, whilst running a sports mentoring website [http://www.elitementor.com elitementor.com] with Christie and Campbell.Achievements
Personal Bests
References
External links
* [http://www.nuff-respect.co.uk/clients_katharine.htm Merry at Nuff Respect] ,
Linford Christie 's agency
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