OtteyLINZ, Austria, CMC:
VETERAN JAMAICAN Merlene Ottey advertised winning form ahead of next week's IAAF World Indoor Championship with a tight triumph at the Intersport Indoor 2003 meeting on Friday night.
The 42-year-old Ottey, now representing Slovenia, ran 7.17 seconds for a narrow victory over Austria's Katrin Mayr, while her former Jamaica teammates Juliet Campbell and James Beckford also registered wins at the last major event before the March 14-16 world indoors in Birmingham, England.
Ottey, a multiple Olympic and World Championship medallist for Jamaica before switching last year to her adopted country Slovenia, produced a strong late race effort to edge Mayr (7.18) at the finish.
French star Sylvian Felix was a close third in 7.19 seconds as Ottey got the confidence booster she needed before taking on a top field in the event - for which she is a former world indoor champion - in Birmingham next weekend.
Her winning time was the fastest she has gone this year and makes her seventh fastest in the world in the event so far this year.
Ottey, who holds the world record for the indoor 200 metres at 21.87 seconds, has had a conservative indoor season because of a knee operation last year, and will race only in the 60 metres at the world indoors.
"But I hope to run it (200) outdoors," said Ottey, the World (outdoor) 200-metre champion in 1993 and 1995.
Campbell, who won the World Indoor 200 metres in Portugal two years ago, appears to peaking at the perfect time for her title defence.
She ran her personal season's best 22.95 seconds to capture the event easily, chased by Slovenia's Alenka Bikar (23.51), who was a finalist at the 2001 world indoor.
"I felt really, really good, over the past week and a half, I've put in some serious work," Campbell told CMC Sport.
"There was really no competition, second place was 23.50-something so I was basically out there by myself running, and so I have two more serious sessions of training to do, and then I'm looking forward to Birmingham," Campbell added.
Beckford, the 1996 Olympic silver medallist behind the legendary Carl Lewis, gave the new Intersport Arena its first eight-metre jump as she captured the men's long jump at 8.11 metres.
