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Sonia LANNAMAN - Great Britain.
Sonia Lannaman competed in her first Olympic Games in 1972 , where she set a British junior record of 11.45 sec. In 1973 she became European junior champion winning gold in the 100 metres, followed by a bronze in the 4 x 100 metres relay. In the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch she won a silver medal in the 4 x 100 m relay.
In 1976 Lannaman won the silver medal over 60 metres at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Munich. In the summer of that year she made a major breakthorough into world class sprinting. She ran the 100m in an unofficial wind assisted 10.8 sec and set a British record in the 200 metres. She was strongly tipped for medals in both sprints at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but due to injury was unable to compete.
In 1977 Sonia Lannaman was ranked second only to world record holder Marlies Göhr in the 100m. In the European Cup of that year she was second in both the 100 and 200 m and in the inaugural World Cup, second again in the 100m and first in the 4 x 100 m representing Europe. She also ran the fastest ever electronically timed 100m by a British woman of 10.93 sec.
In 1978 Lannaman won the 100m gold medal and 200m silver medal in the 1978 Commonwealth Games for England and for Great Britain in the 1978 European Championships won a silver in the 4 x 100 m relay with team mates Kathy Smallwood-Cook, Beverley Goddard and Sharon Colyear.
In 1980 she ran her fastest official time in the 100 m of 11.20 sec and set another British record in the 200 m of 22.58 sec.
She competed again for Great Britain in the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, Russia in the 4 x 100 m relay, where she won the bronze medal with her team mates Heather Hunte, Kathy Smallwood-Cook and Beverley Goddard.
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