At the ongoing XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris, female athletes competed for medals in the 100-meter sprint. Turkmenistan was represented in this event by Valentina Meredova, a master of sports from the sports club of the Ministry of Construction and Architecture of Turkmenistan.
Valentina Meredova, who will turn 40 on September 29, has been involved in athletics for 27 years. She holds Turkmenistan records in the 60-meter indoor sprint (7.44 seconds) and 100-meter sprint (11.56 seconds). She participated in three summer (Helsinki-2005, Osaka-2007 and Beijing-2015) and winter (Moscow-2006, Valencia-2008 and Portland-2016) World Championships, three summer (Wuhan-2015, Doha-2019 and Bangkok-2023) and four winter (Doha-2016, Tehran-2018, Nur-Sultan-2023 and Tehran-2024) Asian Championships, two summer Asian Games (Doha-2006 and Incheon-2014), the V Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Ashgabat-2017), two Islamic Solidarity Games (Baku-2017 and Konya-2022), and is the only athlete of our team in Paris who previously competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The 100-meter sprint is considered one of the most prestigious disciplines in athletics, attracting the largest number of athletes. At the Paris Olympics, 91 women registered for this event. Thirty-six of them, who did not meet the Olympic standard of 11.07 seconds but received wild cards, started in the preliminary round. Among them was Valentina Meredova, who started in the first of four heats, from which the top 17 runners advanced to the main round. Finishing fourth in her heat with a time of 12.01 seconds, our compatriot placed 16th overall and advanced to the next stage, where 72 athletes competed in eight heats for a spot in the semifinals.
In the main round, Valentina Meredova ran on the ninth lane in the final, eighth heat. Showing a good start reaction of 0.156 seconds, she finished ninth in her heat with her best result of the season – 11.95 seconds. However, this was not enough to advance to the semifinals, where the qualifying time in her heat was 11.12 seconds.
The 2024 Olympic champion in the 100 meters, with a time of 10.72 seconds, was Julien Alfred from Saint Lucia, winning the first Olympic medal in history for her island nation with a population of 180,000. American Sha'carri Richardson took second place (10.87), and her compatriot Melissa Jefferson finished third (10.92).
At her first Olympics in Beijing in 2008, Valentina ran the 100 meters in 11.94 seconds in the preliminary qualifying round and did not advance to the second round, finishing 53rd among 85 athletes. At the current Games in Paris, she finished 65th with a time of 11.95 seconds. Unfortunately, over the past 16 years, no other female athlete in Turkmenistan has been able to break Valentina Meredova's long-standing national record of 11.56 seconds in the 100-meter distance, which she set on June 7, 2008, at the Gusman Qosanov Memorial in Almaty. This indicates a weak preparation of the sports reserve in this popular sprint distance.
However, Valentina Meredova should not be discouraged. Comparing her results at the current Olympics in Paris and the results of the last World Masters Athletics Championships in Tampere (Finland) in the women's 100-meter sprint, where Amelie Huyghes won in the U40 category with a time of 12.08 seconds, it can be seen that Meredova, with continued diligent training, has every chance to become Turkmenistan’s first world champion among veterans.
