The 23-year old Estonian sprinter has a personal best of 52.21s in the 400m dash. Mägi set the mark in Australia, en route to winning the 2011 Sydney Track Classic. She outclassed local bet Tamsyn Lewis, the 2008 World Indoor Champion in the 800m, by five-hundredths of a second.
The Estonian quarter-miler churned out a gutsy final stretch. As the sprinters came out of the last bend, Mägi actually placed 3rd, with the American Monica Hargrove leading the pack. Mägi clung on to the lead against a fast-finishing Lewis, shaving off a massive 0.51s from her erstwhile personal best of 52.72s set in 2008.
The Estonian has had some pretty exciting duels with Lewis in the Australian Athletics Tour. At the finals held in Perth, Mägi stopped the clock at 52.90s, beating the veteran Aussie yet again.
Mägi has had modest successes in major international meets. As a junior, she once reached the semifinal of the World Junior Championships in Beijing, ending up fifth in her heat at the 400m dash. She replicated this feat at the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Doha, but failed to progress beyond the semifinals.
The legendary French sprinter has had a solid career. In 1998, she won European titles in the 100m dash and the 4x100m relay. Arron stopped the clock at 10.73s, making her the fourth fastest female in the event, behind Florence Griffith-Joyner, Carmelita Jeter and Marion Jones.
During the 2003 World Championships in Paris, the Guadeloupe-born athlete anchored the French team to a shock gold medal in the 4x100m relay. Arron, then 30-years old, came from behind to nip 2003 World Champion Torri Edwards at the tape. It was an electrifying performance from the French women. Slick baton passing and Arron’s sprinting prowess were a potent combination!
Two years later in Helsinki, Arron took individual third-place accolades in the 100m and 200m. She dipped below 11 seconds in the century dash (10.98s) and ran 22.31s in the 200m dash.
Arron has a penchant for last minute bursts of speed. In the 1998 European Championships 100m final, she powered past the early race leader, Irina Privalova, in the final 40m. Privalova had around a three-stride lead, but Arron’s monstrous speed made up for the gap.
Arron’s illustrious career isn’t over just yet. She’s still active in athletics circles, the elder statesman of a young and dynamic French squad.
Pittman-Rawlinson (or simply Pittman, now that she just split from her husband yet again) had a well-publicized quarrel with fellow Australian Tamsyn Lewis a few years back. She’s no stranger to controversy. From her feud with Lewis, relationship troubles, injury problems, speculation on her shifting allegiances and even breast implants, Pittman-Rawlinson has been a lightning rod for attention.
Photos from Wikipedia, Allvoices.com and IAAF
Australian media refer to Pittman-Rawlinson as THE drama queen of athletics! In one particular post-Commonwealth Games party in Melbourne, Pittman-Rawlinson was booed by club goers, despite her winning 4 gold medals in the said event. There’s this latent malevolence towards the talented athlete.
Nevertheless, Pittman-Rawlinson’s achievements on the track speak for themselves. She was twice crowned world champion in the 400m low hurdles (2003 and 2007) and a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist (two each in the 4x400m relay and 400m hurdles). As a junior, Pittman-Rawlinson notched an impressive 400m-400m hurdles double in the 2000 World Junior Championships.
Since I’m not familiar (and not interested!) at her off-track antics, I’ll best remember Pittman-Rawlinson for her courageous stand at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Despite undergoing knee surgery days before, the Australian hurdler qualified for the final and finished a strong fifth.
Silvia Salis is this week’s track beauty (well, strictly speaking, Salis is a field beauty)!
As a junior, the Italian ranked 12th at the World Junior Championships in Grossetto back in 2004. Salis has shown steady improvement in the past few years. At the regional level, Salis is a force to be reckoned with, having been crowned Mediterranean Games champion in 2009. However, the 25-year old hammer thrower has yet land the podium in a major international meet.
However, she failed to replicate her stellar form in the Beijing Olympics, where she placed disappointed 42nd place, notching a sub-standard 62.28m throw in qualifying.
Salis threw the hammer to a new personal best distance of 71.77m in 2009. A year later, she barged into the top 8 of the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.
Pidluzhnaya burst into the senior scene with her bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships in France. The Russian long jumper, made it a 1-3 punch for the athletics powerhouse nation, leaping 6.75m in the final.
The 22-year old also placed 3rd at the European Junior Championships back in 2007. A year later, she finished 8th in qualifying at the World Junior Championships in Beijing. Pidluzhnaya has an outdoor personal best of 6.84m set in 2010 – a world class mark in women’s long jumping. ith her podium finish in Paris, Pidluzhnaya had solidified her spot among the long list of elite Russian long jumpers.
Yuliya won silver at the 2011 World University Games in Shenzen, China. Her best leap of 6.56m was good enough for second place behind compatriot Anna Nazarova. Her 2012 start wasn’t as impressive as the previous year. To date, the Russian has an indoor best of 6.60m. Pidluzhnaya, however, could only muster a modest 6.28m mark at the Russian National team championships in Sochi, the first major Russian outdoor meeting this year.
The 20-year old Jungfleisch was the youngest member in the German contingent sent to the 2011 European Indoor Championships. With Ariane Friedrich absent due to an Achilles injury, it was up to the youngster to carry the cudgels for her country in the high jump. She finished 12th in qualifying, notching a 1.89m mark.
Jungfleisch has had a stellar 2011 season. Pitted against a crack lineup of veteran high jumpers, young German ably put on a firm challenge. She leaped a new absolute personal best of 1.92m, finishing behind the Russian duo of Svetlana Shkolin Светлана Владимировна Школина and Irina Gordoyeva Ирина Гордеева.
Jungfleisch was born in Paris to a father from Martinique. Hence, the 2011 European Indoor Championships was a homecoming of sorts for promising German talent.
The 20-year old had won the 2008 and 2009 German Youth titles, as well as the 2011 German indoor senior title. Expect Jungfleisch to do better in the coming years.
Yes, she’s the Delilah behind the famous Plain White T’s song. Tom Higgenson, the lead vocalist of the band, wrote the song for the steeplechase runner back in 2002. Sadly, nothing happened between the two, as opposed to what the song portrays (Higgenson took DiCrescenzo to the Grammy’s though).
Back in 2008, Delilah was aiming to compete in the Beijing Olympics. She was a top-level U.S. steeplechaser, placing 6th at the 2006 U.S. Outdoor Championships.
The top 3 eluded DiCrescenzo at the competitive U.S. Olympic Trials. 2009 was a lot better for Delilah, having made the shift from the track to cross country running. DiCrescenzo competed at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the most illustrious competition in her resume.
The Israeli high jumper’s first love is dancing. But to her coach, her talent in athletics had always beckoned. According to an EAA article, Frenkel was “on the verge of becoming a professional dancer” five years ago. Anatoliy Shafran, Frenkel’s trainer, convinced her to give the sport a second try. Frenkel, with her solid dancing background, reminds me of another dancing high jumper – Blanka Vlasic!
The Israeli’s improvement started gradually at first, with Frenkel clearing 1.69m and 1.75m in 2007 and 2008. During the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona, Frenkel set a new national record, clearing 1.92m in qualifying.
However, pressure hindered Frenkel from replicating her stellar form in the final. As a result, she finished a dismal 12th, with her 1.85m mark.
The 23-year old made amends at the European Indoor Championships in Paris, narrowly missing an historic medal for Israel. Nevertheless, she went over 1.92m in her first attempt, before leaping over 1.94m to clinch fourth place. Frenkel could not sustain her fine form in the rest of the 2011 season. She could only muster clearances of 1.75m and 1.85m at the Universiade and the World Championships, respectively.
Frenkel, unfortunately, succumbed to a knee injury. She went under the knife to repair a torn ligament at the start of 2012. With her reputation on the rise after respectable performances in 2010 and 2011, the talented Israeli is certainly bound for bigger things, as soon as she fully recovers ftom injury.
The Dutch multi-event athlete had just won her first-ever major championship medal, a bronze at the 2011 European Championships in Paris. The tall Fransen tallied a total of 4,665 points in the Pentathlon en route to her 2nd-runner up finish.
The 25-year old notched an impressive array of personal bests in the two-day competition. Fransen remarkably broke her best marks in all five disciplines. She even set a Dutch national record in the high jump, with her 1.92m leap (an unsurprising feat considering the fact that she’s built like the stereotypical high jumper!).
Prior to her breakout 2011 season, Fransen’s best performance was a heptathlon gold at the European Cup Combined Events 1st League, second tier continental competition, where she set a personal best of 5,993 points in the heptathlon.
With her surprise European Indoor bronze, Fransen’s confidence must be at an all-time high. Expect the talented Dutchwoman to contend for future continental titles – and to at least finish within the top echelons come the 2012 London Olympics.
The Czech athlete originally started out as a heptathlete, but shifted focus to the long jump. The then 16-year Rosolová leaped 6.40m to win silver at the World U-17 Championships. A year later, she was crowned as the World junior champion, notching a 6.61m jump in the final.
The skilled Rosolová went back to the multi-events in 2008 (her best mark in the heptathlon is 6,104 points). According to an EAA article, injuries sustained from the grueling discipline saw Rosolová shift to the 400m.
Rosolová had won numerous Czech national titles in the long jump and heptathlon. Despite winning the European indoor long jump silver in Birmingham back in 2007, triumph seemed to elude Rosolová in both the jumps and the multi-events.
In 2010, Rosolová made the big shift to the quarter-mile. Success was immediate for the versatile athlete. At the European Championships in Barcelona, the Czech went tantalizingly close to 50 seconds in the 400m, finishing 5th (50.90s) in the highly competitive final.
At the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Paris, Rosolová nipped the fancied Russian duo of Olesya Krasnomovets Олеся Александровна Форшева and Kseniya Zadorina Ксения Ивановна Задорина in the last 60m, winning her first major senior title. The 24-year old ran an indoor personal best of 51.73s en route to the gold, bettering her 2011 season’s best by a massive five hundredths of a second.
Denisa, however, wasn’t as successful outdoors in 2011. Despite notching a new personal best in the 400m dash in Ostrava (50.84s), the Czech could only muster a semi-finals finish in the Daegu World Championships, exiting the competition in 52.53s. At the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Rosolova qualified for the finals (her first in the worlds as a quarter miler) and finished in sixth place.
Lindenberg is a mainstay of the formidable German 4x400m relay squad. The Berlin-born athlete was part of the silver-medal winning team from the 2010 Barcelona European Championships. This was Lindenberg’s first major championship medal.
The German has quite a collection of prominent tattoos as well, making her stand out among the rest of the field. In English, the words mean love, faith and hope.
Photo from AP
The tall sprinter has a personal best of 52.20s in the outdoor 400m dating back to 2010. Lindenberg has had a stellar indoor season to date, in which she notched an indoor personal best of 52.26s, a mere six one-hundredths of a second off her outdoor best.
At the ongoing European Indoor Championships in France, the 24-year old finished a strong second in the semis (53.12s), earning a spot in the final where she notched a respectable fifth.
The retired Slovenian sprinter was never world champion, or even European champion. In fact, Bikar is famous in internet circles because of a particular body part. Underneath all the admittedly tasteless close-ups, however, was a fairly decent world-level sprinter.
In a career spanning two Olympic Games and five outdoor world championships, Bikar had set personal bests of 11.21s and 22.76s in the 100m and 200m dashes, respectively.
Her best event was the 200m. In the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Bikar finished a strong fifth in the final, stopping the clock at 22.76s, matching her lifetime best. Indoors, the Slovenian was just as powerful. In the 2000 European Championships in Gent, Bikar won her first and only major international podium, a silver medal.
Athletics is a sport where mature, full-developed athletes rule. In fact, athletes below 16 years old cannot compete in the Olympics or the senior IAAF World Championships. Clarke is a rare, once in a generation talent. As a 16-year old, the Aussie competed in front of thousands of her screaming countrymen during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The Geelong-born middle distance runner went as far the semifinals – a big achievement for any athlete, especially for a teenager. Clarke narrowly missed the third slot in the 800m run, losing out to veteran campaigners.
Clarke won her first national title at the age of 14. As a 16-year old, she ran the second fastest 1500m by an Australian (4:06.77). Her personal best in the 800m run in 2000 was a world class 2:01.73, faster than middle distance greats Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Sebastian Coe when they were at the same age, according to a Cool Running article. Prior to the Sydney Olympics, Clarke lived in Europe to compete at the prestigious European circuit. An informative feature article by Running Times Magazine, accurately depicted the athletics prodigy’s difficulties in living out the elite athlete life. At such a young age, she was uprooted from her comfort zone. Clarke was unhappy, according to the article.
Since her stellar performance at the Sydney Olympics, Clarke has been hounded by injuries, missing the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. She suffered fractures in her spine. There came a point where the once-promising middle distance prospect could hardly walk without pain. But still, the 2001 World Youth Champion persevered. In 2008, despite running with a stress fracture on her foot, she missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics by two-hundredths of a second. A few months later, her foot broke.
True enough, Clarke is still at it. Most recently, the now 26-year old former child prodigy is at the top of the distance category in the 2011 Australian Athletics Tour. She ran a competitive 4:17 in the 1500m to finish first palce in the Brisbane Track Classic.
Indeed, her running days are far from over. With the London Olympics barely 2 years away, the prospects for an injury-free Georgie Clarke are bright.
The Serbian long jumper had a stellar junior career. As a 16-year old at the 2006 Beijing World Junior Championships, Španović finished a respectable 7th, leaping 6.23m.
Photos from b92.net and Life
Two years later, the spunky Serbian wrested the world junior crown in Bydgoszcz – Serbia’s first gold medal in the tournament in 18 years. She registered a winning mark of 6.61m, four centimeters short of her then 6.65m personal best set about a month prior to the championships.
Španović and the rest of Serbia had high hopes coming into the 2009 European Junior Championships held in Novi Sad. The reigning world junior champion and no less than Darya Klishina Дарья Клишина herself engaged in a head-to-head long jump duel, with the Russian emerging the clear victor.
With her Novi Sad rival emerging as the next best long jump talent in 2010, Španović had relatively less success than the high profile Klishina. Nevertheless, Španović leaped to 6.78m in her first year out of the junior ranks.
Lisa helped Team USA win gold at the 2005 Helsinki world championships. Two years earlier, Barber was part of the U.S. quartet that lost to a determined French home team in Paris 2003. Lisa, in an excellent display of sprinting versatility, more than made up for the 4x100m silver with a gold medal at the grueling 4x400m in Paris. In Osaka 2007, Mikele sustained the Barber winning tradition, as the powerful American relay squad struck gold yet again.
Lisa was crowned World Indoor Champion in Moscow back in 2006, clocking a personal best of 7.01s.
The differences in performances are not as glaring as Susanna and Jenny Kallur, the first twins showcased in the weekly Track Beauty feature. Both sisters have shown prowess in distances 400m and below. Lisa had run faster times than Mikele, however. The former has best times of 10.95s, 22.37s and 50.87s in the 100m, 200m and 400m, respectively. Mikele is a tad bit slower (11.02s, 22.73s) in the shorter sprints, but about two-hundredths of a second faster in the quarter-mile (50.63s).
The success of the Barber twins is truly remarkable, despite the fact that they won relay medals at different points in time! Well, it’s never too late for the twins to win a relay crown together.
Hurdler49: Hurdling the Real World 
