Ottey confirms Moscow season opener | 12.01.2007

Slovenian sprint legend, Merlene Ottey, has confirmed her participation in the IAAF Russian Winter meeting at the CSKA Stadium in Moscow on the 28^th of January.  

	Merlene Ottey, pictured after winning the 100m at the Celtic Cup in Scotland, last August.

A medallist as far back as the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Ottey set an over 45 World Masters 100m record of 11.34 at the Scottish Championships in Glasgow last August, and is looking forward to returning to Russia. 

"It's where it all began for me 27 years ago and I'm looking forward to returning to Moscow to see how successful my winter training has been" she said.

The 46-year-old Ottey, who returned to top class sprinting last year after numerous injuries, will join a strong field including Russia's Irina Khabarova.

Their last meeting was in the 100m semi-final at the last year's European Athletic Championships in Gothenburg, where Khabarova finished second while Ottey fifth, needed just 0.03sec to progress to the final.

Amazingly, Ottey still holds the meeting record for the 50 meters of 6.00sec, which she set in 1994!

This season, Khabarova has already posted 7.24 for 60m in Yekaterinburg last week to emerge as the early season leader, while Ottey, who is currently preparing in Los Angeles, will return to Europe in mid-January ahead of the Moscow meeting. 

She is yet to decide whether she will compete at the European Athletics indoor Championships in Birmingham.

Elsewhere in Russia, sprinter Andrey Yepishin, who won silver medals last year at the World Indoors in Moscow and the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg will start his indoor season this weekend at the Moscow City Championships. He is then scheduled to ran at the IAAF Permit Russian Winter and will then he will decide whether he will compete at European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham.