When you are good at everything then do everything, so Denise Lewis did.
After joining Birchfield Harriers (Birmingham) she tested her undoubted
natural abilities in every discipline: running, jumping and throwing.
It was soon realized that she was a 'natural' for the seven event
heptathlon. In 1988 she was ranked No.2 on that year's UK Intermediate
(under 18) ranking list. Her best individual event was the long jump and
that same year she was the 24th best in the UK (all ages) with 6.02
metres. However, her long jump didn't improve for several years (1992)
and it was the heptathlon that slowly took her to the top of UK
athletics.
Ranked 10th in both 1989 and 1990 she moved into the top
three in 1991, still a teenager. By 1992 her hurdling had taken her to
12th spot in the UK (13.70sec.) and her long jump 13th (6.18w). But it
was 1994 that finally brought her to the attention of the general public
when she won the Commonwealth Games. In July of 1994 she had passed the
6000 mark for the first time. At the Games, held in Victoria, Canada,
she made another leap forward with 6325 points to beat Australia'a Jane
Flemming by just 8 points.
A splendid long jump of 6.44m. and a PB in
the javelin of 53.68 (old best 48.58), both on the 2nd day were the gold
winning moments. She now moved into World ranking at No.14 and her long
jumping took her to No. 2 on the UK list (6.56m). Her World ranking
slipped in 1995 but she experienced the challenges of competing at the
very highest level when she contested the World Championships in
Gothenburg (pictured above at the end of the event) where she
finished seventh. Earlier that year she had won the European Cup with
6299 points- her exact score in Sweden ! (George Herringshaw) |