Amber Anning (born 18 November 2000)[1] is a British sprinter. A double Olympic medalist, she holds the British record for 400 metres, 49.29 seconds, which she took finishing fifth in the women's 400 metres at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
 Anning at the 2023 World Athletics Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Citizenship | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 18 November 2000 London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Brighton & Hove AC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Chris Johnson since 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals | 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World finals | 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Regional finals | 2019 Indoor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 200m: 22.60 (Fayetteville, 2024) 400m: 49.29 NR (Paris, 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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She won two bronze medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's 4 x 400 metres relay and mixed 4 x 400 metres relay.
Anning is the British record holder indoors over 200m and was part of British teams that won medals in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay events at the 2019 European Indoor Championships and 2023 World Championship. She also won medals at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games and the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships. Anning competed in college athletics for LSU Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks.
Personal life
editAnning was born in London and spent her early years in Hove and Australia. Amber is the eldest of three sisters. As a child Amber participated in netball, swimming and athletics before choosing to specialise in the latter.
She attended Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College.[1] In 2020, Anning began studying at Louisiana State University in the United States on a scholarship. In 2022, she transferred to the University of Arkansas.[2] She graduated in 2024 with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations with minors in Journalism, Strategic Media and Psychology.[3]
Career
editAnning has competed for Brighton & Hove Athletic Club since she was nine years old.[4] From the age of 16, until his unexpected death in 2021, she was coached by Lloyd Cowan.[1][2] Anning broke the British under-15 300 metres record running 38.73 seconds and was the first, and to date, the only British under-15 to run sub 39 seconds. The previous record holder was Dina Asher-Smith.[2]
At the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, Amber finished third in the 400 metres event and was part of the England team that finished second in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay. She missed the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships due to injury.[5]
Aged 17, she won a bronze medal over 200m at the British Indoor Championships. A year later, at 18, she came second over 400m at the British Indoor Championships, running 53s dead to break the nearly 50-year-old British U20 Indoor record of Marilyn Neufville. With this she auto-qualified for the individual 400m and the British relay squad, which won the silver medal in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.[2] In the same year, Amber also finished second in the 400 metres event at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships, and anchored the British team to victory in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay competition at the championships.[2]
In 2020, she started competing in college athletics for LSU Tigers,[6] where she was coached by Dennis Shaver.[2] In August 2022, she transferred to Arkansas Razorbacks.[6]
At the 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, she was part of the Arkansas relay team that set the fastest women's indoor 4 × 400 metres relay time in history of 3:21.75. Anning's time on the first leg was the fifth fastest ever.[6] Anning was a member of the British team that finished third in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. It was her first senior World Championships, and she ran the second leg of the race splitting 49.70 seconds in the heat and 49.82 seconds in the final.[4]
In January 2024, Amber broke Katharine Merry's 25-year-old 200m British Indoor record, clocking 22.60 at Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.[7]
In March 2024, she won the 400m at the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston in 50.79 seconds, leading her teammates Nickisha Pryce and Rosey Effiong to an historic podium as Arkansas became the first women's program to have a 1–2–3 finish in the 400 at the NCAA Indoor meet.[8] The Arkansas Razorbacks, led for the first time by Head Coach, Chris 'Captain' Johnson, also won the women's team title for the second year in a row.[9] In May 2024, Anning ran 49.51 seconds over 400m at the SEC Track and Field Championships, to move to third place on the British All-Time list, behind Christine Ohuruogu and Kathy Smallwood.[10] At the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships Amber won the bronze medal over 400m, running 49.59 seconds, in an historic race in which the Razorbacks achieved a 'super sweep' of the top four places.[11] In the women's 4 x 400 metres relay, Anning, Effiong, Pryce and Kaylyn Brown set a collegiate record time of 3:17.96 to win the event for Arkansas.[12]. Anning became a fully professional athlete in 2024 after graduating from Arkansas.[3]
Later in 2024, Anning won the 400 metres event at the 2024 British Athletics Championships, and qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics as a result.[13] She was part of the mixed 4x400 team which won a bronze medal in a new national record of 3:08.01.[14][15] In the individual event, she reached the final and finished fifth in 49.23 seconds, a national record and only three hundredths of a second from bronze.
Achievements
editPersonal bests
edit| Type | Distance | Time (s) | Wind (m/s) | Venue | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoor | 100 metres | 11.49 | +0.2 | Tempe, United States | 19 March 2022 | |
| 200 metres | 22.66 | -0.5 | Gainesville, United States | 9 May 2024 | ||
| 300 metres | 37.79 | — | Loughborough, Great Britain | 1 September 2017 | ||
| 400 metres | 49.29 | — | Saint-Denis, France | 9 August 2024 | NR | |
| Long jump | 5.57 m | 0.0 | Reading, Great Britain | 28 June 2015 | ||
| Triple jump | 11.65 m | -1.0 | Ashford, Great Britain | 16 August 2015 | ||
| Indoor | 60 metres | 7.45 | — | Fayetteville, United States | 5 February 2022 | |
| 200 metres sh | 22.60 | — | Fayetteville, United States | 26 January 2024 | ||
| 300 metres sh | 39.37 | — | Sheffield, Great Britain | 13 February 2016 | ||
| 400 metres sh | 50.43 | — | Fayetteville, United States | 24 February 2024 | ||
| 800 metres sh | 2:05.05 | — | Fayetteville, United States | 12 January 2024 | ||
| Team events | ||||||
| Outdoor | 4 x 100 metres relay | 42.45 | — | Eugene, United States | 6 June 2024 | |
| 4 x 200 metres relay | 1:31.11 | — | Austin, United States | 30 March 2024 | ||
| 4 x 400 metres relay | 3:17.96 | — | Eugene, United States | 8 June 2024 | ||
| 4 x 400 metres relay mixed | 3:08.01 | — | Saint-Denis, France | 3 August 2024 | NR | |
| Distance medley relay | 11:02.45 | — | Austin, United States | 25 March 2022 | ||
| Indoor | 4 x 400 metres relay sh | 3:21.75 | — | Albuquerque, United States | 11 March 2023 | |
| Distance medley relay sh | 10:49.14 | — | Fayetteville, United States | 17 February 2023 | ||
International competitions
edit| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Commonwealth Youth Games | Nassau, Bahamas | 3rd | 400 m | 53.68 |
| 2nd | Mixed 4 x 400 m relay | 3:25.45 | |||
| 2019 | European Indoor Championships | Glasgow, Great Britain | 17th (h) | 400 m sh | 53.26 |
| 2nd | 4 x 400 m relay sh | 3:29.55 | |||
| European U20 Championships | Borås, Sweden | 2nd | 400 m | 52.18 PB | |
| 1st | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:33.07 WU23L | |||
| 2021 | European U23 Championships | Tallinn, Estonia | − | 200 m | DNS |
| 2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 3rd | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:21.04 SB |
| 2024 | Olympic Games | Paris, France | 3rd | Mixed 4 x 400 m relay | 3:08.01 NR |
| 5th | 400 m | 49.29 NR | |||
| 3rd | 4 x 400 m relay | 3:19.72 NR |
References
edit- ^ a b c "Amber Anning". Arkansas Razorbacks. 31 December 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f "Amber Anning's move to United States will boost her Tokyo Olympics credentials". The Daily Telegraph. 23 July 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ a b "Amber Anning prepares for professional debut". The Arkansas Traveler. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Three medals for Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the final day at the World Championships". England Athletics. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ "ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT – AMBER ANNING". Sussex Athletics. 8 April 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ a b c "Meet Amber Anning and Yusuf Bizimana". Athletics Weekly. 7 June 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ "Amber Anning: Paris 2024 Olympics would be 'icing on cake' for record-breaking Team GB sprinter". BBC Sport. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ "NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships: Women's 400 M" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 9 March 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ "Arkansas women's track and field wins second straight NCAA indoor title | Whole Hog Sports". www.wholehogsports.com. 9 March 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "AN ASTONISHING 49.51 FOR AMBER ANNING, NOW #3 ON GB 400M ALL-TIME LIST". Sussex Athletics. 14 May 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ "2024 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship Results". Runner's World. 8 June 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ AP, AP (9 June 2024). "Arkansas wins NCAA women's outdoor track and field team title". ESPN. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
- ^ "Asher-Smith reaches Olympics as young GB stars shine". BBC Sport. 30 June 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ "Great Britain win mixed 4x400m relay bronze". BBC Sport. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
- ^ "Team GB secure first athletics medal in Paris in relay race thriller". The Independent. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024.