| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 1 March 1986 Luton, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joanna Blair (born 1 March 1986) [1] is a British javelin thrower who won the javelin event at the 2016 British Athletics Championships and England Athletics Championships, came second in the events at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games, 2006 AAA Championships and 2017 British Athletics Championships, and came third at the 2014 British Athletics Championships.
Blair trained at Luton Athletics Club, and also worked as a sports masseuse. [2] In 2003, she won the English Schools Senior Championship javelin event. [3] She came second in the javelin event at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games, behind Australian Annabel Thomson. [4] Blair competed at the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships. [2] She came second in the 2006 AAA Championships. [5] She came seventh in the 2010 South of England Championships, with a best throw of 42.20m. [6]
Blair came third in the javelin event at the 2014 British Athletics Championships. [5] She won the javelin event at the 2016 British Athletics Championships, in a personal best distance of 57.44m, more than three metres better than her previous best. [2] It was the seventh best throw ever by a British female javelin thrower. [2] Later in the year, she won the England Athletics Championships with a best throw of 52.63m, [7] and she was named Luton's female sportsperson of the year. [8]
In 2017, she competed at the Nitro Athletics team event in Australia. [2] [9] She failed to qualify for the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London; [2] the qualifying distance was 61.50 metres. [9] She came second at the 2017 trial event for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, and was considered a contender for a place at the Games. [2] She came second to Laura Whittingham at the 2017 British Athletics Championships. [10] Blair competed at the 2017 European Team Championships. [2] It was her first international event for 11 years, and she finished ninth. [11] At the event, she failed an out of competition drugs test, after testing positive for anabolic steroid metandienone. [11] She was suspended by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), [2] who said they believed she had received a "contaminated supplement", [11] and Blair blamed contaminated creatine that she bought on the internet. [12] In 2018, she was given a backdated four year suspension until July 2021. [11] [12]
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, and was the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. As the scale of her accomplishments at global level became clear in hindsight, Sotherton was increasingly recognised as part of the line of world class British pentathletes/heptathletes that included Mary Rand, Mary Peters, Judy Simpson, Denise Lewis, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, her multiple global medals between 2004 and 2008 bridging the gap between the Olympic triumphs of Lewis and Ennis-Hill.
Theresa Ione "Tessa" Sanderson is a British former javelin thrower. A six-time Olympian from 1976 to 1996, she won the gold medal in 1984 for Great Britain. In 1996, she became the second track and field athlete to compete at six Olympics. She is the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres outdoors and 20.54 m indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a British retired track and field athlete from England, specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 world indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon. Today, Ennis-Hill commentates for the BBC and runs Jennis, a fitness app specialising in women's health. Her latest product launch is CycleMapping, which helps women map their training to their menstrual cycles.
Shelley Holroyd is a female British former javelin thrower.
Zahra Bani is a Somali-born Italian javelin thrower.
Jarrod Bannister was an Australian track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. His personal best throw of 89.02 metres, achieved in 2008, is the Australian and Oceanian record.
Vítězslav Veselý is a Czech javelin thrower. He won two bronze medals at the Olympic games, in 2012 and 2020.
Gladys Anne Lunn was an English track and field athlete from Birmingham, England who competed in the 1934 British Empire Games in the 1938 British Empire Games.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Kathryn Mitchell is an Australian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. She has represented her country at three Olympic Games, finishing ninth in 2012 and sixth in 2016. She won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a throw of 68.92 m, a Commonwealth Games, Australian and Oceanian record. It also ranks her seventh on the world all-time list.
Chijindu "CJ" Ujah is British athlete, specializing as a sprinter. The lead-off runner of the Great Britain 4 × 100 metres relay team that won both the World title in 2017 and the European title in 2016 and 2018, he also won the title in the 100 metres at the 2017 Diamond League final. On 18 February 2022 it was announced that Ujah and his teammates Zharnel Hughes, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Richard Kilty would be stripped of their 4 × 100 metres relay 2020 Summer Olympics silver medals after Court of Arbitration for Sport found Ujah guilty of a doping violation.
Lü Huihui is a Chinese athlete who competes in the javelin throw. She won the silver medal at the 2015 World Championships and bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships.
Hollie Beth Arnold, is a British parasport athlete competing in category F46 javelin. Although born in Grimsby, she now lives and trains in Loughborough. She represents Wales in the Commonwealth Games. Arnold was the youngest ever field athlete to ever compete in the Paralympics/Olympics, at the age of 14 at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing throwing a personal best. She also threw a personal best in 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. She took the gold medal in the F46 javelin in the 2016 Summer Paralympics at Rio, also throwing a new world record at the same time. In 2021, at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, she took the bronze medal. In 2018, she became the first ever Javelin thrower in history to hold all four major titles in the same Paralympic/Olympic 4-year cycle: Rio Paralympics and world record 2016, London World Championships and world record 2017, Berlin European Championships and course record 2018 and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and world record 2018. She also holds four consecutive world titles: 2013 Lyon, 2015 Doha, 2017 London, and 2019 Dubai.
Sue Howland is an Australian javelin thrower whose best result was a gold medal at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. Howland won the Australian Junior Javelin throw in 1977 and 1978. Her international career began in 1981 with the Pacific Conference Games and continued to the 1992 IAAF World Cup.
Morgan Lake is a British track and field athlete, specialising in heptathlon and the high jump. She is the 2014 World Junior champion in heptathlon and high jump, and the 2015 European Junior champion in high jump.
Annu Rani is an Indian javelin thrower from Bahadurpur, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. She was the 1st Indian to reach the finals of women's javelin throw event in the World Athletics Championships, Doha, 2019. Annu had qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through world rankings after missing out on the Olympic Qualification mark. Her career best effort is 63.24m which helped her win the gold in the National Interstate Athletic Championship, Patiala, 2021.
Lauryn Therin is a British track cyclist and a former bobsledder and track and field athlete.
Susan Mary Platt is a British former track and field athlete who competed for England and Great Britain in the javelin throw. She was a three-time Olympian and competed three times at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. She had a personal best of 55.60 m and was Commonwealth champion in 1962.
Colin Mackenzie is a retired British javelin thrower.
