Her coach's statement after the race in Bruxelles:

"Merlene's been having some trouble for the last couple of days with an allergy and cold. We'll see in Salonika, Greece on Wednesday if that was the cause of her slightly worse performance. Merlene lost at least half  meter at the start of the race, lost her usual rhitm and pace, and since Marion Jones performed really well, nothing could be done in the second half of the race!"

"My legs simple didn't obey me!", added Merlene.

Her statement after the races in Ljubljana:

Her statement after the race in Zürich:
"I am very happy to return to the most prestigious meet on the Grand Prix circuit and test my fitness after an intense three week training period.  I am looking forward to run against the best in the world at the Letzigrund stadium and would like to thank Res Bruegger and his crew for welcoming me there.  It will be a great thrill to say goodbye to all my Swiss fans that have supported me during the last two decades."

Her statement after the race in Italy:

"I was looking forward to run in good conditions but unfortunately the weather was simply terrible.  However, for me the most important thing was to run and feel the excitement of competition. I am pleased to be back on the track and confident that I will improve in every race and be at the top of my form for the Olympics. It's been tough, and mentally it was difficult to focus, but now I have some time before the Olympics and I'm going to train hard and have a try. I'm keen just to run, just to get back in the race," she said.

Her coach, Slovenian Srdjan Djordjevic said he was disappointed with Wednesday's race, but felt there was still time to get it right before September. He said Ottey was likely to compete in races either in Stockholm or Zurich during August.

"There's no doubt she can run faster, but it needs to be warmer. I think if the conditions are right, she can be fast enough for something under 10.90"