Track legend Merlene Ottey will represent Slovenia at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. (Picture Alliance)

Merlene Ottey, the legendary sprinter who turned 50 on Monday, is preparing herself for the 20th European Athletics Championships to be held in Barcelona between 26 July and 1 August.

With Ottey's enthusiasm not waning at all in the last three decades, the Slovenian athlete with Jamaican origin is aiming for a better performance in Barcelona than four years ago in Göteborg when she reached the semi-finals of the women's 100m.

Her coach Srdjan Djordjevic has confirmed Ottey's intentions to run in Barcelona.

Although her last 100m race dates back to 2008, when she clocked 11.60, last winter she clocked 7.66 over 60 metres.

Differences between Ottey, who still lives and trains in California, and the Jamaican athletics federation after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney forced the athlete to change her nationality.

Since then, she has been competing for Slovenia, a country she represented at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and 2006 European Athletics Championships.

In a remarkable athletics career Ottey has participated in seven Olympic Games, since making her debut at the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980. She bagged the bronze medal in the Russian capital at the age of 20.

Throughout her brilliant career, she has won 29 medals at big international championships.

She still maintains impressive positions on the all- time world rankings in both sprint categories: fourth in 100m with 10.74 and third in 200m with 21.64.