Sally Jane Janet Gunnell,OBE,DL (born 29 July 1966) is aBritish formertrack-and-field athlete, who won the 1992Olympic gold medal in the400 metres hurdles. During a 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international event open to her, claiming Olympic Games, World Championship, European Championship, Commonwealth Games, Goodwill Games, IAAF World Cup and European Cup golds in the event, and breaking the British, European and World records in it. She is the only female British athlete to have won all four 'majors'; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles,[3] and was the first female 400 metres hurdler in history to win the Olympic and World titles and break the world record. Her former world record time of 52.74 secs in 1993 is still the currentBritish record. She was named World and European Female Athlete of the Year in 1993, and was made anMBE in 1993 and anOBE in 1998.
Gunnell was born inChigwell,Essex,England to Les and Rosemary Gunnell, and grew up on the family's three-hundred-acre[4] farm and attended the local primary andWest Hatch High schools inChigwell.[citation needed]
Gunnell started out inathletics with theEssex Ladies club[5] as an accomplishedlong jumper andheptathlete, before specialising in hurdling. In 1984, she narrowly missed Olympic selection at both heptathlon, with a score of 5680 points and in the 100 metres hurdles, where she set a UK junior record of 13.30 secs.
In 1986, having won theAAAs andUK titles, Gunnell won theCommonwealth Games gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles in Edinburgh, ahead ofWendy Jeal and 1984 Olympic heptathlon championGlynis Nunn. She would remain the UK number one in the event over the next four seasons and reach the semi-finals at the 1987 World Championships and 1988 Olympics in the event.
Gunnell first attempted the 400 m hurdles event in 1987, with a 59.9 clocking. In 1988, in her first full season at the event, she would reach theOlympic final in Seoul. At the Olympic trials in Birmingham, she broke the UK record with 55.40. In Seoul she would improve this twice, first to 54.48 in the semis then to 54.03, to finish fifth in the final. This would remain her best time in the event for three years.
In 1989, Gunnell won the European Indoor title at 400 metres. Outdoors, she finished second in the 400 m hurdles at the European Cup behind East Germany'sPetra Krug, but ahead of Olympic silver medallistTatyana Ledovskaya. In September at theWorld Cup, she was third behindSandra Farmer-Patrick of the US and Ledovsakya, but this time ahead of Krug. In January 1990, she defeated 1988 Olympic championDebbie Flintoff-King to win theCommonwealth title in Auckland. The 1990 summer season however was disappointing, when she only finished sixth at theEuropean Championships.
Gunnell entered into the best phase of her career in 1991, improving her own three-year-old UK record three times. In Monaco she ran 53.78, in Zurich she ran 53.62, then at theWorld Championships in Tokyo, she won the silver medal behind Ledovskaya with 53.16, the then third fastest time of all-time. Ledovskaya won with 53.11.
Gunnell won the400 m hurdles at the1992 Olympic Games inBarcelona, running 53.23 to defeat Sandra Farmer-Patrick.[6] She also anchored the British 4 × 400 m quartet to a bronze medal. In 1993, she reached her peak, when she set theworld record in the 400 hurdles to wingold in theWorld Championships in Stuttgart, winning in 52.74, narrowly ahead of Farmer-Patrick who ran 52.79, also inside the old record.
This record was broken byKim Batten in 1995, but is still theBritish record. Gunnell was the first female 400 metres hurdler to have won the Olympic and World titles and broken the world record, a feat since achieved by bothDalilah Muhammad andSydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
In 1994, Gunnell added theEuropean title to her collection, winning comfortably in 53.33. She also won theGoodwill Games ahead of Kim Batten, successfully defended herCommonwealth title and won theWorld Cup title in London. 1994 was her third (and final) year as the world's number one. She missed most of 1995 due to injury, an injury from which she would never fully recover. Her defence of herOlympic title inAtlanta in 1996 was cut short when she pulled up injured in the semi-finals. This seemed a particularly cruel blow, as this race occurred on her 30th birthday.[7] Also in 1996, she worked as aRed Crossambassador inAngola. In September 1997, she retired after a recurrence of anAchilles tendon injury forced her to pull out of the World Championships semi-final.
Gunnell remains the only woman to have won theEuropean,World,Commonwealth andOlympic 400-metre hurdles titles.[8]
Gunnell is now involved as one of the ambassadors for McCain's Track & Field partnership withUK Athletics.[9]
Gunnell worked as a television presenter, predominantly for theBBC, until 2006.[citation needed] She also co-hosted the game showBody Heat (1994–96) onITV withMike Smith andJeremy Guscott.[10]
Gunnell was one of the four celebrity guests in the ITV'sYou Bet! – Series 7 (1993–94), co-winning with Michaela Strachan, donating her winnings to a charity working to find a cure for breast cancer.[citation needed] In 1997, she was the recipient of the "big red book" on theThis is Your Life programme.[citation needed]
In summer 2006, she was a celebrityshowjumper in the BBC'sSport Relief eventOnly Fools on Horses.[11] She also won aWeakest Link Sporting Heroes Special, first broadcast on 25 July 2009 on BBC One.[citation needed]
She took part in a celebrity version of TV showTotal Wipeout which aired on 2 January 2010.[12]
In 2012, Gunnell took part on ITV'sThe Cube and won £20,000 for her charity.[citation needed]
In the1993 New Year Honours, Gunnell was made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and in the1998 Birthday Honours, she was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).[13] In 2011, Gunnell was appointedDeputy Lieutenant ofWest Sussex.[14]
In 2012, Gunnell was one of five Olympians chosen as part of a series body-casting artworks byLouise Giblin exhibited inLondon and copies were being sold in aid of the charity Headfirst.[15]
Gunnell is married to fellow athlete Jonathan Bigg, and has three sons; Finley, Luca and Marley. She lives nearBrighton inEast Sussex.[16]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Great Britain / England | |||||
| 1983 | European Junior Championships | Schwechat,Austria | 13th | Heptathlon | 5395 |
| 1986 | Commonwealth Games | Edinburgh, Scotland | 1st | 100 m hurdles | 13.29 |
| European Championships | Stuttgart, West Germany | 17th (h) | 100 m hurdles | 13.22(wind: 0.0 m/s) | |
| 1987 | World Championships | Rome, Italy | 10th (sf) | 100 m hurdles | 13.06 |
| 1988 | European Indoor Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 4th | 400 m | 51.77 |
| Olympic Games | Seoul, South Korea | 11th (sf) | 100 m hurdles | 13.13 | |
| 5th | 400 m hurdles | 54.03 | |||
| 6th | 4 × 400 m | 3:26.89 | |||
| 1989 | European Indoor Championships | The Hague, Netherlands | 1st | 400 m | 52.04 |
| World Indoor Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 6th | 400 m | 52.60 | |
| World Cup | Barcelona, Spain | 3rd | 400 m hurdles | 55.25 | |
| 1990 | Commonwealth Games | Auckland, New Zealand | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 13.12 |
| 1st | 400 m hurdles | 55.38 | |||
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:28.08 | |||
| European Indoor Championships | Glasgow, Scotland | 4th | 400 m | 53.38 | |
| European Championships | Split, Yugoslavia | 6th | 400 m hurdles | 55.45 | |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m | 3:24.78 | |||
| 1991 | World Championships | Tokyo, Japan | 2nd | 400 m hurdles | 53.16 |
| 4th | 4 × 400 m | 3:22.01 | |||
| 1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 53.23 |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m | 3:24.23 | |||
| 1993 | World Championships | Stuttgart, Germany | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 52.74 |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m | 3:23.41 | |||
| 1994 | European Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 53.33 |
| 4th | 4 × 400 m | 3:24.14 | |||
| Commonwealth Games | Victoria, Canada | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 54.51 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:27.06 | |||
| World Cup | London, England | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 54.80 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:27.36 | |||
| 1996 | Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States | DNF (sf) | 400 m hurdles | 55.29 (heat) |
| 1997 | World Indoor Championships | Paris, France | 13th (h) | 400 m | 53.05 |
| 6th | 4 × 400 m | 3:32.25 | |||
| World Championships | Athens, Greece | DNS (sf) | 400 m hurdles | 54.53(heat) | |
| (#) Indicates overall position in qualifying heats (h) or semifinals (sf) | |||||
Note:Represented Great Britain in all events excluding the Commonwealth Games, where she represented England and the 1989 World Cup, where she represented Europe.
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None | Women's European Athlete of the Year 1993 | Succeeded by |
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by | Women's 400 m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1992–1994 | Succeeded by |
|
|
European Athletics Championships champions in women's400 metres hurdles | |
|---|---|
|
Commonwealth Games champions in women's100 metres hurdles | |
|---|---|
| 80 metres hurdles (1934–1966) | |
| 100 metres hurdles (1970–present) |
|
Commonwealth Games champions in women's400 metres hurdles | |
|---|---|
|
Commonwealth Games champions in women's4 × 400 metres relay | |
|---|---|
|
World Athlete of the Year (women) | |
|---|---|
|
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
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