The "Veterans" of athletics still going strong
11 August 1999 - Monte-Carlo – Italy’s team can boast a veritable phenomenon - one man who has been around for a very long time, particularly at a distance where those over 30 are considered too old to run the blue riband event. Stefano Tilli, is 37 this year and still going strong. He first competed in the World Championships as a member of the 4x100m relay team in Helsinki 1983 which took silver behind the USA’s world record of 37.86, and since then has been entered at either 100 or 200 metres at each edition of the World Championships. At this 7th edition of the World Championships he will run the 100m – 16 years after his first appearance in 1983.
Canada, for their women’s 4x100m relay team, have entered Angela Bailey, who is also 37. In her prime, she became a pioneer of women’s sprinting in her country and is the second Canadian woman (after Angella Issajenko – 10.97) to have produced a sub-11 seconds run on 6 July 1987 with 10.98. Her name still features in the all time world lists, and more recently she competed in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where she ran 11.46.
Meanwhile India also has a veteran on their team, Ms P.T. Usha, a sporting legend in her country of origin. Entered for the 4x400m relay in Sevilla 99, this athlete, born in 1964, is probably the greatest sprinter her country has produced. She holds the national records for 100m with 11.39 established in 1985, 200m with 23.27 in 1989, 400m with 51.61 in 1985 and to complete the sprints, 55.42 for the 400m hurdles, which was set at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles where she made the final. She was also part of the 4x400m relay team at the World Championships in Rome 1987 which established an Indian record of 3:31.55 and more recently in 1994 was member of another relay team, this time over 4x100m that brought the national record down to 44.81.
Not to be left out, Djibouti has also entered an all time favourite, Ahmed Salah Houssein who is 43 years old, and ran the best African marathon performance in 1985. At the World Championships in Rome 1987 he became the first athlete to win an international title for Djibouti. One year later at the Seoul Olympics he came third to earn the first Olympic medal in any sport for his country. He then went on to win another major medal at the World Championships in Tokyo 1991 taking the silver. He is entered again to run the marathon in Seville.
