The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Elana Meyer on a comeback

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Saturday, Oct 14, 2006
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Elana Meyer on a comeback

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Elana Meyer is on a comeback. South Africa's best-known distance runner is here to compete in the Hutch Delhi half marathon.

Even if she fails to pose any great challenge to the defending champion from Russia, Irina Timofeyeva, or the rest of the field, Meyer would have brought a touch of class to the Delhi event on Sunday.

The South African is on a mission, to gain a qualifying time for the Two Oceans ultramarathon (56km) at home in April next year. She will attempt the Singapore marathon in December towards that target. This half marathon is just a build-up, just as it was in the case of the Foot of Africa half marathon at Bredasdorp, back home, on October 7. She clocked a modest 1:22:30 in the race.

That was her first competitive road race since the Lagos half marathon in November 2004. She had announced her retirement in May last year, but has come back, at the age of 40 to pursue what she likes most.

Her plans

Meyer, who set six world records on the road and still holds the world records in half marathon (1:06;44) since 1999 and 15km (46:57) since 1991, said on Friday that she was planning an assault on Mount Everest in 2008. She had climbed Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, last year.

Meyer, who won the world half marathon title in 1994, is best remembered for her silver medal in the 10,000 metres behind Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. A poignant moment it turned out to be as the two embraced and then took off on a victory lap, shoulder to shoulder with their national flags draped around them. It truly marked South Africa's return to the Olympic fold.

"I am very excited about this new challenge and I am trying my best to get back in shape," Meyer said on Friday. She felt that being from Africa, the warm conditions in Delhi would not hold her back.

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