Katharine Merry

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Katharine Merry
2013 Great North CityGames Pole Vault - Luke Cutts and Kath Merry cropped.jpg
Katherine Merry for BBC Sport interviewing British pole vaulter Luke Cutts at the 2013 Gateshead Great City Games vault
Personal information
NationalityBritish (English)
Born (1974-09-21) 21 September 1974 (age 50)
Dunchurch, Warwickshire, England
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Sport Athletics
EventSprints
Club Birchfield Harriers
Coached by Linford Christie
Retired2005
Medal record
Women's Athletics
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2000 Sydney 400 m
European Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1998 Budapest 4x400 m relay

Katharine Merry (born 21 September 1974) is an English former sprinter. She achieved the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the fastest woman in the world over 400 m in 2001, with her career best of 49.59 seconds. She also represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won the 200 metres at the 1993 European Junior Championships.

Contents

Career

Born in Dunchurch, Warwickshire, Merry had a career that spanned 20 years. A member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club, at the age of 12 she topped the UK Under 13 rankings in seven different events. She was the fastest girl in the world aged 14 years, and started her international GB career aged just 13, staying on the junior team for a record six years, winning five Junior Championships and a total of six medals. She became a successful senior athlete with her Olympic medal in Sydney in the "Race of the Games", achieving bronze behind the Australian favourite, Cathy Freeman, in front of 112,000 people at Stadium Australia.

The following year she became World number One. She was coached by fellow Olympic medallist Linford Christie in his Cardiff-based training squad, which included fellow Olympic medallist Darren Campbell. She is also with Christie's sports agency, Nuff Respect. Merry still holds various UK age-record bests, including U/13 high jump and several sprints, as well as the Senior UK Indoor 200 m record of 22.83 secs. She also holds World age-records, including 7.35 secs for 60 m indoors, when aged 14. She is third-fastest on the UK All Time 400 m list with a time of 49.59 seconds. [1]

After suffering from a bone spur growth on her right heel bone, and two operations, Merry announced her official retirement from athletics in July 2005. [2] She had been affected by the injury since 2001 and was struggling to get it fully healed. It had prevented her from resuming proper training, meaning she could not get back to her year 2000 form. Despite that, she still ended the 2001 season as the world's fastest female 400 m runner. [3]

Post-athletics

Merry now works freelance in the media on radio and TV. She worked for the BBC at the Olympics in Beijing and London [4] and was the sole field event commentator for the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympic Games in 2012. At the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014, Merry did live trackside interviews. [5] She has also worked for Sky TV, Eurosport and Channel Five. A multi-tasker, Merry now commentates, presents and hosts sporting events around the world. [6]

Merry appeared on the BBC One gameshow All New Celebrity Total Wipeout on 25 September 2010, where she struck up a rivalry with John Regis, the man who, in her words, "ate all the pies". She "ran" the qualifier in 2:16, beating Regis by 50 seconds, and then beating him again in the next two rounds, but losing finally in the Wipeout Zone, finishing third behind Regis and eventual winner DJ JK. She won overall, 3 events to 1. [7]

She is a regular on BBC One's A Question of Sport and BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk . In December 2013, Merry came third out of four contestants on Celebrity Mastermind on BBC One. Her specialist subject was Aston Villa F.C. 1980–1990. [8]

Merry was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. [9]

At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Merry became the first female in-stadium announcer at an Olympic Games. [10]

In January 2024, Merry was named by Aston Villa as a member of the Honorary Anniversary Board ahead of the club's 150th anniversary season, as well as previously becoming a AVFC Foundation Ambassador. . [11]

Personal life

Merry was based in Cardiff while training with Linford Christie, before moving to Bristol after retirement. [12] Her son was born in February 2011 and her daughter in March 2014. The family lives in Birmingham, England. [13] [14]

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing the Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
1989 European Junior Championships Varaždin, Yugoslavia7th100 m11.84
5th200 m24.05
1990 World Junior Championships Plovdiv, Bulgaria8th100m 11.71 (wind: +0.9 m/s)
2nd4 × 100 m relay 44.16
1991 European Junior Championships Thessaloniki, Greece3rd200 m23.84
2nd4 × 100 m relay44.57
1992 World Junior Championships Seoul, South Korea6th100m 11.63 (wind: +0.3 m/s)
5th200m 23.59 (wind: +0.3 m/s)
4th4 × 100 m relay 44.62
1993 European Junior Championships San Sebastián, Spain2nd100 m11.58
1st200 m23.35
1st4 × 100 m relay44.31
1993 World Championships Stuttgart, Germany22nd (qf)200 m23.46
1994 European Cup Birmingham, United Kingdom2nd100 m11.34
2nd200 m23.38
2nd4 × 100 m relay43.46
1994 European Championships Helsinki, Finland15th (sf)200m 23.55 (wind: +0.3 m/s)
5th4 × 100 m relay 43.63
1996 European Cup Madrid, Spain3rd200 m22.88
1996 Olympic Games Atlanta, United States19th (qf)200 m23.17
8th4 × 100 m relay 43.93
1997 World Championships Athens, Greece32nd (qf)200 m23.98
1998 European Championships Budapest, Hungarysemifinal200 m23.38
3rd4 × 400 m relay 3:25.66
1999 World Championships Seville, Spain5th400 m50.52
2000 Olympic Games Sydney, Australia3rd400 m49.72
6th4 × 400 m relay2:25.67

Personal bests

EventVenueTimeDate
60m (indoors) Glasgow 7.3423/01/94
100m Birmingham 11.34 11.27w25/06/94
200m Barcelona 22.76 (−1.0w)25/07/00
200m (indoors)Birmingham22.8314/02/99
300m Gateshead 36.0028/08/00
400m Athens 49.5911/06/01
400m (indoors)Birmingham50.5318/02/01

References

  1. "400 Metres - women - senior - outdoor". www.worldathletics.org. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  2. Katharine Merry: 'I had surgery twice, then illness almost stopped my breathing. In the end, I couldn't go on' | Sport | The Observer
  3. "400 Metres - women - senior - outdoor". www.worldathletics.org. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  4. "Nuff Respect". Archived from the original on 16 June 2007.
  5. "Katharine Merry". birmingham.livingmag.co.uk. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  6. "Live Event Hosting & Commentary". Katharine Merry. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  7. "BBC One - Total Wipeout, Series 3, Celebrity Special 2". BBC.
  8. Cartledge, James (12 November 2013). "Ex-Birchfield Harriers sprinter Katharine Merry quizzed on Aston Villa for Mastermind". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  9. "Greats of the sport honoured in 2018 Hall of Fame inductions". englandathletics.org. 13 October 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  10. Abrahams, Celine (23 June 2021). "Katharine Merry to Become First Female Commentator at Olympics in Tokyo". gsport4girls. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  11. "AV 150: Honorary Board Announced". Aston Villa Football Club. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  12. Mount, Harry (25 October 2002). "Portrait of a driver: Katharine Merry" via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  13. Laws, Roz (24 July 2011). "Olympic medal winner Katharine Merry loses out in race for London Olympic tickets". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  14. Hurst, Ben (16 March 2014). "Birmingham 400 metre Olympic medallist Katharine Merry celebrates birth of daughter". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
Preceded by British Champion in 100 m
1994
Succeeded by
Preceded by British Champion in 400 m
1999
Succeeded by