Melaine Walker O.D (born 1 March 1983) is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n 400 metres hurdler. She was born in Kingston. Walker is the former

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

400 m hurdles champion.Lewis, Richard (2009-08-20)
For Walker, World record assault next item on the agenda?
". ''

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

''. Retrieved 2009-08-21. She held the Olympic record of 52.64, set at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, and her time of 52.42 seconds at the 2009 World Championships in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

was the second fastest time in history at the time and still stands as one of the top five fastest times in history.

Biography

Walker is a past student of the St. Jago High School. She won Gold at the

in a new Olympic record time of 52.64 seconds. Walker won the Jamaica national championships in 54.70 seconds, narrowly beating newcomer

Kaliese Spencer Kaliese Spencer Carter (born 6 May 1987) is a Jamaican track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles. She won the bronze medal in the event at the Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 London Olympics. Spencer was the ...

and qualifying for her first

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

. On 20 August 2009, she set the second fastest time in history of 52.42 seconds to win the women's 400m hurdles final at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. She leapt on the back of the mascot Berlino the Bear to do a victory lap but Berlino crashed into a cart of hurdles and dropped her.Emily Benammar
"World Athletics: Berlino the Bear drops Olympic champion Melanie Walker"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 21 Aug 2009

Achievements

Personal bests

60 metres hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds ( Susanna K ...

– 8.05 s (2006, indoor) *

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten Hurdling, hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first h ...

– 12.75 s (2006) *

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

– 52.42 s (2009) *

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior at ...

– 7.40 s (2005, indoor) *

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

– 23.67 s (1998) *

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

– 51.61 s (2008)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Melaine 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican female hurdlers Jamaican female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Jamaica Olympic gold medalists for Jamaica World Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Jamaica Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Jamaica Competitors at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games World Athletics Championships winners IAAF World Athletics Final winners Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics Commonwealth Games competitors for Jamaica