Yvonne Saunders

Last updated

Yvonne Saunders
Medal record
Women's Athletics
Representing Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica
Pan American Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1971 Cali 400 metres
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1971 Cali 4 × 400 metres
Representing Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
British Commonwealth Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1974 Christchurch 400 metres
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1974 Christchurch 4 × 400 metres

Yvonne Saunders-Mondesire (born 9 October 1951) is a Canadian former track and field athlete. A versatile athlete, she competed in women's pentathlon, long jump, high jump, 400 metres and 800 metres. She competed internationally for Canada, Jamaica, and England during her career.

Contents

She was a double medallist for Jamaica at the 1971 Pan American Games and was the 400 m champion at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games for Canada. She competed twice at the Summer Olympics: in 1972 for Jamaica and in 1976 for Canada.

Early life and education

Born Yvonne Saunders in Jamaica, [1] she emigrated with her family to England at the age of eight. Her talent for track and field was identified in her teens while she was at Gorse Park High School in Stretford, Greater Manchester. [2] Competing in the high jump she won the intermediate category at the English Schools' Athletics Championships in 1966 and 1967. [3] She began to expand her oeuvre of events and at the AAA Junior Championships she was the under-17 high jump winner in 1967, then took a high jump pentathlon double in 1968. [4] She represented England at the British Schools International Match, winning high jump in 1967 and 1968. [5] Her international duties brought her to Montreal in 1968 and the family decided to move there that same year. [2]

Career

She moved from Montreal to Milton, Ontario in 1970, and began training at Guelph Legion Track Club. [6] [7] Her talents came along with some unwanted attention and she later recounted: "I was also called racist names as I jogged in the city and white parents approached me at meetings pleading that I should allow their daughters to win". [2] The eighteen-year-old Saunders soon made an impact at the Canadian Track and Field Championships by winning a national title double in the high jump and 400 metres. [8] Entering senior competition, she decided to represent her country of birth and in her major debut she placed eighth in the pentathlon at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games. She also helped the Jamaican women's 4 × 100 metres relay team to fifth in the rankings. [9] [10]

At the 1971 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics she won three medals, being individual bronze medallist in the 400 m and long jump and a gold medallist with the 4 × 400 metres relay team. [11] Further accolades followed at the Pan American Games later that year, where she took bronze medals in the individual and relay 400 m events. She was also fifth in the long jump, clearing six metres. [12] [13] Her Olympic debut came in 1972 at the Munich Games. She was a semi-finalist in the 400 m and ran in the heats with the relay team including Ruth Williams, Una Morris and Rosie Allwood. [1]

Saunders qualified for Canadian citizenship in 1972 and began to compete for her adopted home from 1973 onwards. [2] It was in this period that her career hit its peak. A third Canadian national title followed at the 1973 Canadian Championships. [8] She was chosen to run both the individual and relay sprint events for Canada at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in January and delivered a Canadian record of 51.67 seconds to win the gold medal. She remains the only Canadian woman to have won that title and her run proved to be a lifetime best. [12] [14] She won a second medal with her teammates in the relay, sharing the bronze medals alongside Brenda Walsh, Margaret McGowen and Maureen Crowley. [15] Later that year she set a world indoor best for the 600 metres distance (at 1:18.4 minutes) and she had a 400 m win at the AAA Championships, setting a championship record of 51.90 seconds in the process. [2] [16] [17]

Injuries affected Saunders in the subsequent two years, starting with a herniated back in 1975, then a knee injury. She had a successful appeal to the International Olympic Committee to speed up her citizenship and eligibility to compete at the 1976 Summer Olympics for Canada. With her training interrupted, she was off her 1974 best at the competition. [2] She was eliminated in the first round of the 800 metres and placed a distant eighth in the relay final, running with Margaret Stride, Joyce Yakubowich, and Rachelle Campbell. [1] This proved to be the last global event that she would appear at.

Saunders' form declined after 1976, though she remained in competition. Her last major tournament was the Liberty Bell Classic – held due to the 1980 Olympic boycott – where she was the best of the Western-aligned nations, beating American Robin Campbell and Ann Mackie-Morelli of Canada. [18] She retired from the sport in 1982, having become increasingly disillusioned with the greater role that money and performance-enhancing drugs were having in the sport. She married Dr. Roy Mondesire, a scientist, and the couple had two children. [2] Her younger brother Mark Saunders (police officer) became Chief of the Toronto Police Service in 2015. [19] She was inducted into Athletics Ontario Hall of Fame in 2014 and lives in Boulder, Colorado. [20] [21]

Personal bests

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
1970 British Commonwealth Games Edinburgh, Scotland8thPentathlon4441 pts
5th4 × 100 m relay45.5
1971 CAC Championships Kingston, Jamaica 3rd400 m54.3
3rdLong jump5.65 m
2nd4 × 400 m relay3:41.0
Pan American Games Cali, Colombia3rd400 m53.13
5thLong jump6.01 m
3rd4 × 400 m relay3:34.05
1972 Olympic Games Munich, West Germany5th (semis) 400 m 51.93
5th (heats) 4 × 400 m relay 3:31.89
1974 British Commonwealth Games Christchurch, New Zealand1st400 m51.67
3rd4 × 400 m relay3:33.92
1976 Olympic Games Montreal, Canada4th (heats) 800 m 2:03.54
8th 4 × 400 m relay 3:28.91
1980 Liberty Bell Classic Philadelphia, United States1st800 m2:02.34

National titles

Related Research Articles

Bertland "Bert" Cameron is a retired Jamaican sprinter who mainly competed over 400 metres. He represented Jamaica at three consecutive editions of the Summer Olympics. Cameron won the 400 m title at the first World Championships in Athletics. He was also the 1982 Commonwealth Games champion in the event and won a number of gold medals at regional competitions. He helped the Jamaican runners to a silver medal in the 4×400 metres relay at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Jean Catherine Pickering was a female track and field athlete from Great Britain, who competed mainly in the 80 metres hurdles and long jump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clova Court</span> English athlete

Clova E. Court is a retired English athlete, who competed mainly in the heptathlon and the 100 metres hurdles. She represented Great Britain in the heptathlon at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. She won a record five AAA Championships heptathlon tiles, and also won the 1994 AAAs Championship 100 metres hurdles title, defeating Sally Gunnell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brianne Theisen-Eaton</span> Canadian athlete

Brianne Theisen-Eaton is a retired Canadian track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon and women's pentathlon. She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Theisen-Eaton holds the Canadian record for the heptathlon with 6,808 points, as well as the indoor pentathlon with a score of 4768 points. Theisen-Eaton is a heptathlon silver medallist from the 2013 World Championships and 2015 World Championships, as well as a pentathlon silver medalist from the 2014 World Indoor Championships. She is the first and only Canadian woman to podium in the multi-events at the World Championships. Theisen-Eaton won Commonwealth Games gold in the heptathlon at Glasgow 2014 and was the 2016 World Indoor Champion in the pentathlon. She also won a bronze medal as part of the women's 4 x 400 m relay at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

Wassana Winatho, also known as Amornrat Winatho and Vassanee Vinatho, is a Thai track and field athlete who specialises in the heptathlon and the 400 metres hurdles. She represented Thailand at the 2008 Summer Olympics and competed at five consecutive editions of the Asian Games.

Wellesley K. Clayton is a Jamaican former long jumper who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics and in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janieve Russell</span> Jamaican track and field athlete

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.

The 1960 British West Indies Championships was the fourth edition of the track and field competition between British colony nations in the Caribbean. It was held in Kingston, Jamaica. A total of 31 events were contested, twenty-two by men and nine by women. The women's programme was extended with three throwing events. A new men's event was also included: the athletics pentathlon was the first and only time that a combined track and field event was contested at the completion.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Pusey is a Jamaican former track and field sprinter. She competed over distances from 100 metres to 400 metres. She represented Jamaica at the 1976 Summer Olympics and competed a second time at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Leleith Hodges is a Jamaican former track and field sprinter who competed mainly in the 100 metres. She was one of Jamaica's most prominent female runners of the 1970s.

Ilona Bruzsenyák is a Hungarian former track and field athlete who competed in the women's pentathlon, long jump and 100 metres hurdles. She was the gold medallist in the long jump at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. Bruzsenyák represented her nation at the Summer Olympics in 1972 and 1976, competing in both long jump and pentathlon. She was a ten-time national champion at the Hungarian Athletics Championships.

Joyce Yakubowich was a Canadian track and field sprinter who competed mainly in the 200 metres and 400 metres. She was the 400 m gold medallist at the 1975 Pan American Games, where she also won relay medals. She twice represented Canada at the Summer Olympics and was a three-time Canadian national sprint champion.

Andrea Joan Caron Lynch is a British former track and field sprinter who competed mainly in the 100 metres. A two-time Olympian, the peak of her career was becoming a bronze medallist in the 100 m at the 1974 European Championships and a double silver medallist in the 100 m and 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games. A former British record holder in the 100 m, she has a hand-timed best of 10.9 seconds in 1974 and an auto-timed best of 11.16 secs in 1975. Her 200 metres best is 23.15 secs in 1975.

Suziann Reid is an American-Jamaican former track and field sprinter who specialized in the 400-meter dash. She set a personal record of 50.74 seconds for the distance in 1999. She was a silver medalist with the American women's 4 × 400-meter relay team at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. She was part of the World Championship team twice more, in 2001 and 2005, and helped the United States to silver at the 2002 IAAF World Cup and gold at the 2001 Goodwill Games.

Yvette Julie Wray is a female former English pentathlete, hurdler and sprinter. Born in Scraptoft, Leicestershire, she competed for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980. She also represented England at the Commonwealth Games in 1978 and 1982, winning two bronze medals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1978 UK Athletics Championships</span> International athletics championship event

The 1978 UK Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for the United Kingdom held at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 UK Athletics Championships</span> International athletics championship event

The 1984 UK Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for the United Kingdom held at Cwmbran Stadium, Cwmbran. It was the third time the event was held in the Welsh town, following on from its hosting in 1977 and 1982. The competition was affected by heavy winds that year, particularly the jumps and sprints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1986 UK Athletics Championships</span> International athletics championship event

The 1986 UK Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for the United Kingdom held at Cwmbran Stadium, Cwmbran. It was the fourth time the event was held in the Welsh town. The women's 5000 metres was dropped from the programme and replaced by a women's 10,000 metres event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WAAA Championships</span>

The WAAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) in England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event for women during its lifetime.

The South Pacific Athletics Championships were an international athletics competition between island nations of the South Pacific Ocean. The championships was contested on three occasions: it was first held in 1976, had its second edition in 1978, then its final edition in 1984. Ten nations won medals at the competition during its lifetime. The competition emerged as a single-sport championship following in the footsteps of the region's multi-sport event established in 1963: the South Pacific Games. The athletics competition declined with the emergence of the South Pacific Mini Games in 1981, which was a smaller-scale event with athletics as its core sport.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yvonne Saunders. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Saunders-Mondesire inducted into Athletics Ontario Hall of Fame. ShareNews (2014-10-08). Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  3. ↑ English School Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  4. ↑ AAA Junior Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  5. ↑ British Schools Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  6. ↑ https://news.milton.halinet.on.ca/2499693/page/3
  7. ↑ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/chief-mark-saunders-high-expectations-began-at-home/article24684617/
  8. 1 2 3 Canadian Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  9. ↑ Yvonne Saunders. TheCGF. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  10. ↑ https://news.milton.halinet.on.ca/2499923/page/5
  11. ↑ Central American and Caribbean Championships (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  12. 1 2 Yvonne Saunders. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  13. ↑ Pan American Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  14. ↑ Commonwealth Games (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  15. ↑ Yvonne Saunders. TheCGF. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  16. ↑ AAA Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  17. ↑ Yvonne Saunders Athlete of Meet. The Montreal Gazette (1974-02-25), pg. 19. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  18. ↑ Olympic Boycott Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-02-07.
  19. ↑ "Who is Mark Saunders? Look to the next Toronto police chief's past – and a case that haunts him still".
  20. ↑ "Saunders-Mondesire inducted into Ontario Athletics Hall of Fame". 15 January 2017.
  21. ↑ "Yvonne Saunders".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.