Wendy SLY

Great Britain & N.I.

Wendy Sly - Great Britain & N.I. - 1982 Commonwealth Games 3000m silver

Photo/Foto: George Herringshaw

Date: 10 July 1982

Click on image to enlarge

    • DATE OF BIRTH
      Thursday, 05 November 1959
    • PLACE OF BIRTH
      Hampton, England
  • INTERNATIONAL
  • Great Britain & N.I.
    • Event(s)
      1500m, 3000m
    • Championship Performances
      Olympics: 1984 silver 3000m.
      Commonwealth:
      1982 silver 3000m.
prostate cancer appeal T-shirt offers. 25 years of sporting history.

Wendy SLY - Great Britain & N.I. - 1982 Commonwealth Games 3000m silver

 

Wendy Sly was one of the world's leading middle distance runners on the track in the 1980s, as well as being a top performer in distance events on the road. Competing under her maiden name of Wendy Smith, she made her first impact at senior level in 1978, finishing runner-up in the National Cross-Country Championships and placing 3rd in the 1500m final at the Women's AAA Championships, her time of 4.13.40 a UK best for women aged 18. In 1979, she ran 4.13.06 for 1500m (the fastest ever time by a female British teenager) and recorded 4.36.93 for a mile (less than a second outside the UK record).

 

These performances led to her full international debut in a West Germany v Great Britain v Poland match in Bremen, where she finished 6th in the 1500m (4.14.69). Wendy ended the year with victory in a ten-mile event, the Tipton '10', in November, her time of 54.47 placing her third on the UK all-time list. She began 1980 by breaking 9 minutes for 3000m for the first time (8.53.78), but disappointment followed as she failed to gain selection for the 1500m at that year's Moscow Olympics (the women's 3000m would not be introduced as an Olympic event until 1984)

 

. In 1981, she bounced back to win the National Cross-Country Championships and then placed 6th (4.10.76) in the 1500m final at the World Student Games in Bucharest, Romania. From October 1981 to June 1982, Wendy competed on the road running circuit in the United States, where she won several races over 10km and 15km, in extremes of climate and at various altitudes, and ran 49.01 for 15km, a time only bettered by the Norwegian distance legend, Grete Waitz. Returning to Europe for the track season, she set her first UK record at the Bislett Games in Oslo (Norway) in July 1982, clocking 8.46.01 for 3000m when runner-up to the American starlet Mary Decker (8.29.71).

 

Wendy missed out on selection for that year's European Championships after placing 4th - when unwell - in a 3000m trial, but recovered to win her first international medal by taking silver in the 3000m at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. She lost out to Anne Audain of New Zealand (who won in a Commonwealth record of 8.45.53), though Smith's time of 8.48.47, in very windy conditions, was the second fastest ever by a British woman. (Martin Greensill)