Angela Caroline Thorp (born 7 December 1972) is a female British 100 metres hurdler and sprinter.

Angie Thorp
Personal information
Full nameAngela Caroline Thorp
NationalityBritish
Born (1972-12-07) 7 December 1972 (age 51)
Wombwell, England
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)100 metres Hurdles, 4 × 100 metres relay
ClubWigan Harriers

Athletics career

edit

Thorp competed in the 100 metres hurdles and women's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics.[1]

She broke the British 100 metres hurdles record of 1992 Olympic Champion Sally Gunnell at the games, running a personal best time of 12.80 seconds in the semi-final finishing 5th. She therefore did not make one of the top four qualifiers for the final. However, the 3rd placed athlete in this semi-final, Nataliya Shekhodanova of Russia, was subsequently disqualified after the final for doping offences which meant that also after the final Thorp was retrospectively upgraded to 4th place in the semi-final.[2][3] At the games she was also a part of the British team which finished 8th in the 4 x 100 metres relay final.

Thorp won a British title in 1996 [4] and represented England in the 100 metres hurdles event, at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[5][6]

Thorp's British record stood for 15 years until it was broken in 2011 by Tiffany Porter.[7] Thorp said that she was "devastated" at losing her record to an American-born athlete. She said that she would have congratulated an established British athlete who took her record; at the time Jessica Ennis and Sarah Claxton both had personal bests of 12.81s.[8] Ennis later took the British record at the London 2012 Olympic Games.[9]

References

edit
  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Angie Thorp Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  2. ^ "1996 Atlanta 100m hurdles semi finals". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Thorp back on the blocks". Manchester Evening News. 17 February 2007.
  4. ^ "Athlete Profile". World Athletics.
  5. ^ "1998 Athletes". Team England.
  6. ^ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  7. ^ "All time rankings". Power of 10.
  8. ^ Gare Joyce (29 November 2012). "What Does the Flag Mean: Nationalism and the Olympics". Sportsnet. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  9. ^ "London 2012: Jessica Ennis sets hurdles record to build heptathlon lead". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
edit