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In common with many champions in her chosen sport, Sally Gunnell
seemed to achieve success in any field of athletic endeavour she chose
to undertake, and her path to becoming the world's best 400m hurdler
would involve her progression through a number of events before she
found the one at which she would truly excel. Sally started her
athletic career as a long jumper, earning early success when she won the
WAAA junior title in 1980. Soon afterwards she moved on to the
pentathlon, and later, the heptathlon, which necessitated her developing
her skills as a 100m hurdler. The hurdles quickly became Sally's best
event in the heptathlon, and for a while she competed in both events,
finishing 13th in the heptathlon at the 1983 European Junior
Championships at Schwechat, where she also reached the semi-finals in
the 100m hurdles.
After just missing selection for the 1984 Olympic
Games in the heptathlon, with a 100m hurdles time which could have
gained her selection in that individual event, Gunnell decided to
concentrate solely on the 100m hurdles thenceforth. After setting a UK
junior record of 13.30sec at the WAAA Championships in 1984, the
following year was basically a year of consolidation for Gunnell, before
her rapid improvement in 1986. Early in 1986 she won both the UK and
WAAA 100m hurdles titles, the latter in a wind-assisted time of
13.13sec. These performances gained Gunnell selection to the
Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where, after easily advancing through
the heats on 31 July (see photo above), Sally went on to win the
gold medal in the final held the following day in 13.29sec. Despite her
status as Commonwealth champion, Gunnell found herself competing in a
different league at the European Championships held later that month in
Stuttgart, where she finished a disappointing 6th in her heat. (Ron
Casey)
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