 Offereins (second from the right) after winning the 4 x 400m relay bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 March 1986 [1] |
| Height | 184 cm (6 ft 0 in) |
| Weight | 76 kg (168 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |  Australia |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | 4 × 400m Relay |
Ben Offereins (born 12 March 1986) is an Australian track and field athlete. He became national 400 m champion and also represented Australia internationally.
Born in Sydney, Offereins' family moved to Perth in 1987. He has been running from a young age, starting out in little athletics and has progressed through to the senior ranks. His first National title came in winning the 200m at the 2003 Under 18 Australian Championships where he also won the silver medal in the 100m.[ citation needed ]
He had his first major 400m win the next year at the Under 20 Australian Championships, [2] which earned him a position on the Australian team for the IAAF World Junior Championships, in Grosseto, Italy in July 2004. He participated in the individual 400m as well as the 4 × 400 m relay. In 2005 still as a junior he entered the open Australian National Championships for the 400m where he won the gold medal defeating 3 members of the Australian 4 × 400 m relay team which won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. [3] The next few seasons saw Offereins plagued by injuries until June 2009 when he set a new personal best for the 400m of 45.69s, a World Championships B qualifier, which earned him the final position on the Australian 4 × 400 m relay team for Berlin 2009. Running a sensational third leg during the heat (44.78s) Offereins forced his way into the team for the final where the Australian team of John Steffensen, Ben Offereins, Tristan Thomas, and Sean Wroe, won the bronze medal for Australia. [4]
In 2010 Offereins started his season by winning the Australia Cup [5] held in Canberra in a new PB of 45.32 sec, he then broke his PB again at the Sydney Track Classic [6] running 44.86sec [7] and becoming only the eighth Australian to break the 45.00 sec barrier and the seventh fastest Australian of all time. He continued his form, winning the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic [8] in 45.73sec, and then the Australian National Championships [9] in 45.17 sec. This gained him automatic selection for the individual 400m and the 4x400 relay at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. [10] At the Athletics Australia [11] annual end of season awards night he was named the Male athlete of the year for the 2010 Australian Domestic season.
He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as part of the men's 4 x 400-metre relay team. [12]
Tamsyn Carolyn Lewis is an Australian media personality and former track and field athlete who won a total of eighteen Australian Championships across the 400 metres, 800 metres and 400m hurdles. She first represented Australia in 1994, and won the 800 metres in the 2008 World Indoor Championships.
The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, the first leg and the first bend of the second leg are run in lanes. Start lines are thus staggered over a greater distance than in an individual 400 metres race; the runners then typically move to the inside of the track. The slightly longer 4 × 440 yards relay, on an Imperial distance, was a formerly run British Commonwealth and American event, until metrication was completed in the 1970s.
Kathryn Jane Cook is a former elite athlete, specialising in sprint and sprint relays. She is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history. She is three-times an Olympic bronze medallist, including at 400 metres in Los Angeles 1984. Her other individual achievements include winning the 200m at the 1981 Universiade, finishing second in the 100m at the 1981 World Cup, and winning a bronze medal in the 200m at the 1983 World Championships. She is also three-times a winner of the British Athletics Writers' Association Female Athlete of the Year Award (1980–82).
John William Steffensen is an Australian former track and field athlete, who specialised in 200 and 400 metres. He won silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. His personal bests were 20.79 and 44.73.
Michael Blackwood is a Jamaican male track and field athlete, who specialized in the 400 meters, his personal best being 44.60 set during his win at the 2002 IAAF World Cup. He was chosen as the Jamaica Sportsman of the Year in 2002, in that same year he was the world number one rank by IAAF in the 400 meters. He is the brother of Catherine Scott who earned a silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Blackwood won the NAIA national 400 meters title in 1997. He is the winner of Jamaica 400 meters national championships three times. Blackwood holds the Big 12 conference record in the 400 meters since 2000 in the time of 44.69. He is an alumnus of The University of Oklahoma.
Mark Ormrod is an Australian athlete. He originally played soccer, but quit the sport to start a career in athletics, his special distance being 400 Metres. He attended Adelaide private school Pedare Christian College
Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu, MBE is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals with the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Jean Éric Milazar is a Mauritian athlete competing in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was born in Rodrigues and currently resides in Coromandel, Mauritius. He is married to Natacha Ramen-Milazar since 2006 an ex volleyball player and together they have two kids Ericson and Erica.
Louis Jacobus van Zyl, better known as L. J. van Zyl, is a South African athlete competing in the 400 metre hurdles. He is the South African record holder in the event with a personal best of 47.66 seconds, which he achieved twice, three months apart. His time ranks him in the all-time top 25. He is a three-time African Champion in the event and competed for his country at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.
Sally Pearson, OAM is a retired Australian athlete who competed in the 100 metre hurdles. She is the 2011 and 2017 World champion and 2012 Olympic champion in the 100 metres hurdles. She also won a silver medal in the 100 m hurdles at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2013 World Championships.
Kirani James is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011, and the 2012 London Olympics. In the 400 metres, James also won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, thus becoming the first man to earn the full set of three medals in the centennial history of the event. He is Grenada's first and only Olympic medalist. He holds the Grenadian national record in both the 200 metres and 400 metres.
Victoria Barr is a British track and field athlete who competes in the 400 metres sprint. Her personal best for the event is 52.40 seconds. She is a frequent member of the British 4×400 m relay team and won a bronze medal at the European Athletics Championships in 2010. She was a silver medallist in the relay for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Joel Milburn is an Australian Dual Olympic 400m sprinter. His Personal Best time for the 400m is 44.80 seconds which he achieved in at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Joel is currently the 5th all time fastest Australian 400m sprinter.
Michael Walter Mathieu is a retired Bahamian sprinter hailing from Freeport, Grand Bahama who specialized in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was part of the Bahamian silver medal-winning team in the men's 4×400 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running second leg and recording a 44.0 split, and the gold medal-winning team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was also a part of second place relay team at the 2007 World Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Eilidh Doyle is a retired British track and field athlete. Originally running as Eilidh Child, she specialised in the 400 metres hurdles outdoors, and the 400 metres flat indoors, as well as the 4 x 400 metres relay on both surfaces. She represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Individually, she is the 2014 European Champion and a three-time Commonwealth silver medalist in the 400 metres hurdles.
Rondell Bartholomew is a Grenadian track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He has represented his country at two World Championships in Athletics and was a 400 m world finalist in 2011. His personal best for the event is 44.65 seconds.
Steven Solomon is an Australian Olympic sprinter. He is a six-time defending Australian 400 metres champion.
Regina George Grause is an American-born Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was the silver medallist at the African Championships in 2012.
Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Alexander (Alex) Beck is an Australian Olympic athlete. He is a three time defending National champion.
Australians at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics | |||
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Australian athletes at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics | |||
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