Melaine Walker

Melaine Walker
Melaine Walker 2009 in Berlin
nation	Jamaica
birthday	January 1, 1983
place of birth	Kingston
size	165 cm
Weight	53 kg
Career
discipline	400 m hurdles
Trainer	Stephen Francis
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 0 × World championships 1 × 1 × 0 × Junior World Championship 0 × 2 × 2 ×
Olympic games gold 2008 Beijing 400 m hurdles  World championships silver 2011 Daegu 400 m hurdles gold 2009 Berlin 400 m hurdles  Junior World Championships silver 2002 Kingston 400 m hurdles bronze 2000 Santiago 400 m hurdles silver 2000 Santiago 4 × 400 m bronze 1998 Annecy 4 × 100 m
last change: August 14, 2012

Melaine Walker (born January 1, 1983 in Kingston ) is a Jamaican hurdler who became Olympic champion in 2008 and world champion in 2009 on her special 400 meter hurdles course . Walker is the second fastest woman over the 400 meter hurdles after world record holder Julija Petschonkina .

Career

At the Junior World Championships in 1998 in Annecy , she won bronze with the 4 x 100-meter relay , at the Youth World Championships in 1999 in Bydgoszcz followed silver in the 200-meter run . At the following Junior World Championships in 2000, she won a bronze medal in the 400 meter hurdles and a silver medal with the 4 x 400 meter relay . In 2002 she won a silver medal in the 400 meter hurdles.

Walker took part in the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton , but was eliminated from the 400 meter hurdles in the preliminary run. At the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2006, she won bronze in the 400 meter hurdles and silver with the 4 x 400 meter relay. In 2007 she reached the semi-finals at the World Championships in Osaka and took third place at the World Athletics Finals in Stuttgart. In both years she was also a Jamaican champion.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , she won the gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles in a new Olympic record time of 52.64 s. A year later at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin , she won her first world title and increased her personal best to 52.42 seconds in the final run. Over time, Walker became the second fastest 400-meter hurdler of all time. In 2010, she had to sit out most of the season due to an Achilles tendon injury . In 2011 she returned to the competition and was second behind the American Lashinda Demus at the World Championships in Daegu with a time of 52.73 s . At the 2012 Olympic Games in London , she was eliminated in the semifinals with a time of 55.74 s.

Walker graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and is trained by Stephen Francis. She was elected Sportswoman of the Year in Jamaica in 2008 and shared the two-time award with Veronica Campbell-Brown . In the same year, Walker was awarded the Order of Distinction (Officer Class).

Personal bests

• 200 meters: 23.51 s, 1999
• 400 meters: 51.61 s, March 22, 2008, Kingston
• 100 meter hurdles: 12.75 s, June 9, 2006, Sacramento
• 400 meter hurdles: 52.42 s, August 20, 2009, Berlin

Web links

• Melaine Walker in the database of World Athletics (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Toplist 400 Meters All Time . Retrieved January 14, 2013.
2. ↑ Diamond League: Ones to watch in Shanghai , BBC Sport, May 12, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
3. ↑ HDsports.at: Oldies and youngsters dominate the stadium round , August 6, 2012
4. ↑ Jamaica Gleaner: Walker set to take hurdles to another level . June 27, 2007
5. ↑ Bolt collects Jamaican Sportsman of the Year honors, Campbell-Brown and Walker share women's award ( Memento February 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), iaaf.org February 14, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
6. ↑ The Gleaner Honor Awards ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jamaica Gleaner October 24, 2008. Retrieved September 2, 2011.