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

“Forever Alone Guy Meets His Dream Athlete”

Check out this  cool clip from LMAOfy! Featuring our favorite hurdler, Michelle Jenneke, and the Forever Alone guy.

Track Beauty of the Week: Tiffany Porter

Tiffany Porter is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from SuperSport

Porter is an American-born sprint hurdler who competes for Great Britain. Before carrying Team GB's colors, Tiffany had won bronze for her country of birth at the 2006 World Junior Championships. [1] She started representing her mother's country in 2011, to some degree of controversy. 

Her impact on the British record books has been instantaneous, as she rewrote national sprint hurdling records many times over. Porter's personal best of 7.80s in the 60m hurdles is the standing British national record. [2] However, Tiffany's national benchmark of 12.56s in the 100m hurdles was bettered by the prolific Jess Ennis at the London Olympic Games. [3]

To date, Porter had won silver medals at the 2011 European Indoors and the 2012 World Indoors, on top of her 4th place finish at the Daegu World Championships.[4] With her appointment as British team captain for the 2012 World Indoors team, and the warm reception she received from British fans at her home Olympics, the so-called "plastic Brit" controversy seemed to have taken a back seat.

References:

1. "Tiffany Porter." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Porter. Retrieved 12-2-2012.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.

Track Beauty of the Week: Ayako Kimura 木村 文子

Ayako Kimura 木村 文子 is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from JAAF.org

Kimura is an elite-level Japanese hurdler. She has a personal best of 13.04s in the 100m hurdles, [1] set in April 2012. Ayako was just four-hundredths of a second from Yvonne Kanazawa's 金沢　イボンヌ 12-year old national senior record and one-hundredth of a second faster than Asuka Terada's 寺田　明日香 career best performance in 2009. 

Ayako's breakout year came in 2010, when she lowered her 2009 best of 13.74s to 13.28s. [2] Her improvement has been gradual in the subsequent years, running 13.19s in 2011 before her impressive performance in Hiroshima last April.

However, the Japanese champion failed to replicate her form at the London Olympic Games. Kimura crashed out of the heats with a below-par clocking of 13.75s. Nevertheless, the future looks bright for the promising Kimura. She has a relatively clean and straighforward hurdling technique, with none of the glaring technical deficiencies common amongst her peers. The London Olympics, after all, was just her first appearance in the world stage.

Ayako Kimura could be the next big thing in Asian hurdling.

References

1. "Ayako Kimura." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayako_Kimura. Retrieved 11-3-2012.
2. "木村 文 子 Ayako Kimura." http://www.jaaf.or.jp/fan/player/wom083.php. Retrieved 11-3-2012.

Track Beauty of the Week: Brigitte Foster-Hylton

Brigitte Foster-Hylton is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from the Jamaica Gleaner

In the run-up to the London Olympic Games, Foster-Hylton was having a stellar string of performances. Her 12.51s clocking in Kingston (5/5/2012) was inferior only to Sally Pearson's 12.40, 12.49s, and 12.49s in the season top list. At 37-years of age, with a complete collection of World Championship medals in her curriculum vitae, London was Foster-Hylton's last shot at Olympic glory. 

But then again, the sprint hurdles is an unpredictable event. The Jamaican crashed out of the qualifying rounds after clipping a hurdle badly. Although she managed to finish the race, her substandard time was not enough for her to progress to the semifinals. Foster-Hylton was inconsolable.

Read: "Sally Pearson's Heartwarming Gesture"

Ever since placing second at the Central American and Carribean Championships in 1999, [1] the Jamaican sprint hurdler has been on the fast track to success. In her Olympic debut in Sydney, Foster-Hylton made it as far to the final. She made up for a semifinals exit in Athens with her sixth place finish in Beijing. [2]

Read: "Brigitte To Bid Farewell"

The highlight of Foster-Hylton's career was winning the World Championship gold in Berlin back in 2009, where she ran 12.51s to egde out  Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (12.54s) and compatriot Delloreen Ennis-London (12.55s).

References:

1. "Brigitte Foster-Hylton." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Foster-Hylton. Retrieved 10-14-2012.
2. 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.

Click this link to read the full article...

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

Michelle Jenneke: The Dancing Hurdler

My college coach suggested that I take up dancing classes a few years back, to improve hip mobility. I'm not really the dancing type, so I ignored his advice! I chose hurdle drills over dancing lessons! But then again, hip mobility is imperative for efficient hurdling clearance.

Screenshot from Al-Jazeera Sport

Michelle Jenneke obviously doesn't share my dancing shyness. The Australian junior has become the latest internet sensation, thanks to a viral Youtube video of her doing a pre-race dancing jig before her qualifying heat.

Click here to view Michelle’s semifinal race

Lo and behold, this young Aussie is a hurdling gem. She topped her heat in effortless fashion, registering a time of 13.52s. She ran 13.41s in the semis, two-hundredths of second off her personal best. Jenneke’s technique is picture perfect. It is efficient. There is hardly any wasted movement. Her trail leg action, as expected, is remarkably snappy. She even clears with a bowed lead foot. Indeed, she is every inch the hurdling technician.

Michelle eventually wound up fifth in the final, stopping the clock in 13.54s.

You can see from her expression and her body language that she really loves what she is doing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: happy hurdlers are formidable competitors. The bubbly Aussie takes the concept further by adding the dance factor, reminiscent of such classy performers like Blanka Vlasic and Chaunte Lowe.

P.S.

Netizens are calling her the new Allison Stokke. Let's just hope that this does not go overboard. 

Additional Links:

IAAF Biography

All-Athletics Profile

WJC 2012 – 100m Hurdles Results

Christina Vukicevic (Љубица Вукићевић) Interview

Watch the following interview with Christina Vukicevic (Љубица Вукићевић):

Track Beauty of the Week: Kristi Castlin

Kristi Castlin is this week's track beauty!

Castlin was poised to make an impact at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. She ran the world's fastest time, a personal best of 7.84sA, en route to winning the tough U.S. Indoor Championships in Albuquerque. The faulty acoustics of the Istanbul stadium, unfortunately, cost her a probable World indoor medal.

Photo from Hokies Sports

Like many other athletes in qualifying, Castlin mistakenly thought that there was a false start, thanks to the echoing retort of the starting gun. The American was disqualified as the rest of the athletes in her heat went on with the race. But then again, the outdoor season holds the bigger prize. Kristi has recovered from her Istanbul experience completely.

At the Bislett Games in Oslo, a Diamond League meeting, Castlin ran a lifetime best of 12.56s, as she finished in a strong second place behind 2011 World Champion Sally Pearson (12.49s). The stylish American took the scalps of her more illustrious compatriots, Lolo Jones (12.75s) and Danielle Carruthers (12.76).

Castlin's hurdling technique is wonderful to watch. Female sprint hurdlers tend to get away with glaring technical flaws because the hurdles in the 100m race are signficantly lower compared to the 110m. I like Kristi's lean as she skims over the barriers. She brings her lead knee closer to her chest than most of her competitors, resulting into a more stable center of gravity throughout the race. Her arm action is picture perfect - snappy, graceful, and compact.

Kristi looks good on and off the track. She has great fashion sense and stands out among the other athletes (she describes herself as "an ostentatious 100m hurdler" in her Twitter account). More importantly, Castlin has the tools - blistering speed and graceful hurdling - to become a legitimate contender in elite women's sprint hurdling.

Additional Links:

Kristi's Twitter

IAAF Biography

All-Athletics Profile

Hokie Sports Profile

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