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Sally Gunnell made an excellent start to 1990, winning two golds and a
silver at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, which included a victory
over Olympic champion Debbie Flintoff-King (Australia) in the 400m
hurdles. Gunnell fared less successfully at the European Championships
held later that year in Split, where she finished sixth in the 400m
hurdles behind Tatyana Ledovskaya (Soviet Union). However, she did not
leave Split empty handed, as she won a bronze medal as a member of the
UK 4 x 400m relay team which set a new national record of 3min 24.78sec.
The 1991 season saw Gunnell make a quantum leap in her performances.
On 3 August, she won the 400m hurdles at Monaco in 53.78sec, smashing
her UK national record and dipping under 54 seconds for the first time.
Only 4 days later, at Zurich, she reduced this time even further, to
53.61sec, moving her to eighth on the all-time world list.
This was
excellent preparation for the World Championships in Tokyo, where, on 26
August, Gunnell easily won her heat (see photo above) in
54.70sec. The following day, she won her semi-final from Ledovskaya in
54.24sec. In the final, on 29 August, Ledovskaya blasted away to her
typical lightning start. The only serious threat came from Gunnell, who
gradually closed on Ledovskaya, until she stuttered slightly and lost
some momentum at the last hurdle. Although Sally again gained ground in
the race to the finish, Ledovskaya reached the line first by just
0.05sec. Sally's time was a massive personal best of 53.16sec, and the
third-fastest time in history behind Ledovskaya's 53.11sec and the world
record of 52.94sec.
Three days later, Gunnell ran the third leg on
Great Britain's 4 x 400m relay team, which finished an unlucky fourth
despite reducing the national record to 3min 22.01sec. (Ron Casey)
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