Ottey's 8th Olympic Games bid fails

Reuters

TOO SLOW: Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey has failed in her final attempt to achieve the 100 metres qualifying time that would have enabled her to become the first athlete to compete in eight Olympic Games.

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Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey has failed in her final attempt to achieve the 100 metres qualifying time that would have enabled her to become the first athlete to compete in eight Olympic Games.

Ottey, 48, finished second at a meeting in the Slovenian city of Maribor this morning (NZ time), said Robert Rudelic of the Athletic Club Poljane which organised the meeting.

"Conditions were bad, she had wind in her chest and she missed the qualifying time by 28 hundredths of a second," Rudelic said by telephone.

Ottey has taken part in every Olympics since the 1980 Games Ottey, who became a Slovenian citizen in 2002, has also won 14 world championship medals, including two titles.

At the 2000 Olympics, she won a relay silver for Jamaica to become the oldest female track and field Olympic medallist.

She also has a 100 metres bronze from the same Games after her US rival Marion Jones last year admitted taking steroids and returned all her medals from the Sydney Games.

Ottey won her first medal – one of a record six bronzes – in Moscow 28 years ago. She never won an Olympic gold.