Track Beauty of the Week: Élodie Ouédraogo

Élodie Ouédraogo is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from She.be

Ouédraogo is a Belgian athlete who competes in both the sprints and the intermediate hurdles. The high point in her career came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she won the 4x100m silver together with Belgian sprinting great Kim Gevaert, Olivia Borleé, and Hanna Marien. The quartet stopped the clock at a new Belgian record of 42.54s.[1] Élodie was also part of the Belgian squad tha won bronze at the Osaka World Championships.

Ouédraogo has personal bests of 11.40s, 23.11s, and 55.29s in the 100m, 200m, and 400m hurdles, respectively.[2]

Élodie originally represented Burkina Faso, her parents' country of birth.[3] As a young sprint hurdler, she competed for the African nation at the 2000 World Junior Championships, but switched allegiance to her country of birth that same year.[4]

Her IAAF biography is a portrait of athletic versatiltity. As a youngster, she competed primarily in the 100m hurdles and the 100m dash, with occasional forays in the long jump. She made her major championship debut at the Osaka World Championships in the 400m hurdles.[5] Since then, Élodie had reached the World Championship semifinals twice (Berlin and Daegu) in an event she had specialized in relatively late. She placed sixth at the 2012 European Championships. A month later, the Belgian made it as far as the semis in the London Olympic Games.

References

1. "Élodie Ouédraogo." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lodie_Ou%C3%A9draogo. Retrieved 1-17-2013.
2. "Athlete profile for Élodie Ouédraogo." http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/belgium/elodie-ouedraogo. Retrieved 1-17-2013
3. "Élodie Ouédraogo."
4. Ibid.
5. "Athlete profile for Élodie Ouédraogo."

Track Beauty of the Week: Zuzana Hejnová

Zuzana Hejnová is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo by Miaow Miaow/Wikimedia

The Czech 400m hurdles specialist has made significant impact in her event the past two years. Coming into the 2011 season, Zuzana had a personal best of 54.13s and a fourth-place finish at the 2010 Barcelona European Championships to her credit. [1] Towards the end of the year, the Czech had lowered her personal record by almost 1 second to 53.29s.[2] More importantly, she gained valuable experience as she crossed the line in a competitive 7th place at the Daegu World Championships.

Zuzana ran the race of her life at the London Olympic Games, as she grabbed the bronze medal (53.38s) behind Natalya Antyukh Наталь Антюх (52.70s) and Lashina Demus (52.77s).[3]

A quick glance at Hejnová's IAAF curriculum vitae indicates that she is a born hurdler. Zuzana has been competing at the highest level of the intermediate hurdles since her debut at the 2002 World Junior Championships.[4] Despite being only 15-years at that time, Hejnová wound up in an impressive fifth place in the final (58.42s).[5] A year later, she bagged the World Youth title in 57.54s.[6]

References

1. "Zuzana Hejnova." http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/czech-republic/zuzana-hejnova. Retrieved 1-10-2013.
2. Ibid.
3. "Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Women's 400m Hurdles." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_400_metres_hurdles. Retrieved 1-10-2013. 
4. "Zuzana Hejnova."
5. Ibid 
6. Ibid

Christine Sonali Merrill’s Balancing Act and Olympic Hopes

Christine Sonali Merrill deserves a shoutout.

Christine Merrill. (Photo from Djh57/Wikimedia Commons)

The American-born Sri Lankan hurdler will compete in the London Olympics as a wild card, having missed the Olympic “B” standard by almost two-hundredths of a second. She has a personal best of 56.83s, set during the preliminary rounds of the Asian Athletics Championships last year in Kobe. Merrill eventually wound up in 3rd place, thanks to a strong finish.

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Track Beauty of the Week: Irina Davydova Ирина Давыдова

Irina Davydova Ирина Давыдова is this week's Track Beauty!

Irina with her European Championships gold medal. (Photo from sport.mos.ru)

Coming into 2012, Daydova had a relatively humble personal best of 55.48s in the 400m hurdles. Davydova made heads turn when she made her outdoor debut in Sochi last May. The Russian clocked 53.87s for her first ever foray under 54-seconds, shedding 1.61 seconds off her erstwhile lifetime best. In fact, she had yet to go under 55 seconds prior to this year! Her performance in Sochi propelled the 24-year old to the top of the 2012 world rankings.

Click here to watch the ECH 400mH W Final

Davydova lived up to her favorite tag at the Helskinki European Championships late last June. Irina was dominant, stopping the clock at yet another personal best of 53.77s, the fastest time in the world as of that month. Denisa Rosolová (54.24s) and Anna Yaroshchuk Ханна Ярощук (54.35s) were far off Davydova's pace. Yaroschuk beat Daydova to the World University Games hurdles gold in 2011.

Perhaps the indication for the newly-crowned European Champion's sudden rise is the improvement in her flat out 400m speed, which merited a selection to the Russian squad to the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, where Irina made it as far as the semifinals. 

Considering the fact that Helsinki was Davydova's major championship debut, the maturity that she displayed was impressive. 

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The 400m Hurdles"

With the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics barely a week away, Davydova is ranked as the second fastest intermediate hurdler this season, behind compatriot Natalya Antyukh (53.40s). Should Irina maintain her momentum, an Olympic gold medal is within reach.

Additional Link:

Irina's IAAF Biography 

Sources:

IAAF

Wikipedia

The Versatile Rosolova

I first learned about Denisa Rosolova while watching last year's European Indoor Championships. It was remarkable how a former champion heptathlete and world class long jumper shifted to the quarter mile and strike gold! I admired her athletic talent and versatility. More importantly, Rosolova has the audacity to try something unorthodox. For this, she has reaped dividends.

Read: "Track Beauty of the Week - Denisa Rosolova"

Rosolova competing at the 2011 Bislett Games. (Photo from Chell Hill)

I was in for another surprise while watching the European Athletics Championships. Rosolova competed in the 400m hurdles, repeatedly setting new personal bests. The Czech star eventually wound up third in the final, finishing behind Russia's Irina Daydova (53.77s) and Ukraine's Anna Yaroshchuk Ханна Ярощук (54.24s). Remarkably, this was Rosolova's sixth or seventh outing in her new event, according to an EAA interview.

Back in the olden days, quarter milers usually dabbled in the intermediate hurdlers with good results, considering the fact that the two events are practically sister events. Those with good 400m flat times could succeed in the low hurdles, despite technical flaws in hurdling. True enough, talented intermediate hurdlers like Angelo Taylor, Bershawn Jackson, and Natalya Antyukh have successfully won medals in the flat one-lap sprint and the long relays.

Read:  "The 400m hurdles/400m dash Combo"

What makes Rosolova stand out is her circuitous journey from heptathlete, long jumper, quarter miler and intermediate hurdler. Not many athletes in this day and age of specialization can emulate Rosolova.

Denisa's major championship curriculum vitae is impressive, having won World Junior long jump title, European Indoor Championship gold, and now - the European Championship intermediate hurdles bronze.

Denisa Rosolova, indeed, is one Superb Senora!

Track Beauty of the Week: Lauren Boden

Lauren Boden is this week's track beauty!

 

In the post-Jana Pittman years, Boden is Australia's best bet in the women's 400m hurdles. Lauren is a six-time Australian champion, a title which she first won back in 2005 as a teenager. That same year, Boden went on to compete at the World Youth Championships in Marrakech, where she won silver (58.30s), on top of her 10th (5.98m) place in the long jump. Boden ran a bit better at the World Junior Championships in Beijing the next year (58.05s), but crashed out at the semifinals.
 

Boden at the Daegu World Championships. (Photo from Zimbio/Getty Images Europe/Chris McGrath)

The one-lap hurdles specialist has a personal best of 55.25s from 2010. Boden is a 6.40m long jumper at her best, a mark she had set in Bangkok at the 2007 World University Games. According to her IAAF stat sheet, Lauren had competed in both the 400m hurdles and the long jump up until 2007, when she decided to focus on the former.

 The Australian is a two-time Commonwealth Games veteran, making her debut in 2006 at the Melbourne Games. Boden was part of the Australian 4x400m quartet that won Commonwealth Games silver in Delhi back in 2010. At the Daegu World Championships, her first major international, Boden ran a lifetime best of 55.78s in the preliminary round, but failed to advance to the final.

Lauren, who trains with 2000 Sydney Olympian Matt Beckenham, secured an early ticket to the London Olympics last February. She bettered the Olympic "A" standard of 55.50s by five-hundredths of a second, en route to her victory at the Sydney Track Classic.

Boden might be be two seconds slower than the more illustrious - and controversial - Pittman-Rawlinson, but her improvement has been gradual. Boden would have to run the race of her life in London, for her to break into the magic eight. For an athlete as focused and motivated as Lauren, the conditions are ripe for success.

Sources:

Athletics Australia

IAAF
 

Additional Links:

Athletics Australia Profile

MBD Profile

Lauren's Official Website