Jenny Meadows

Infobox Athlete


playername= Jennifer Meadows
country= flagicon|United Kingdom Great Britain
club= Wigan & District
datebirth= 17 April, 1981
placebirth=England
height= 1.56 m
weight= 47 kg
turnedpro= 2004
retired=
pb= 400 m 52.50
800 m 1:59.11
olympics=
worlds=
highestranking= 400 m: 74 (2003)
800 m: 17 (2007)
updated= August 25, 2007

Jennifer Brenda "Jenny" Meadows (born 17 April, 1981 in Wigan) is a British athlete. Her main event is the 800m, however she previously competed over the 400m.

Early career

Meadows was the winner in the English Schools Junior Championships in 800m 1995. In 1998 she was 3rd at the AAA Junior Indoor Championships over 400m. She also made her junior international debut and finished second in the English Schools Championships. In 2000, she ran the anchor leg for the Great British team at the World Junior Championships, helping to secure the gold medal. In 2001 she finished 6th at the European Under 23 Championships, and gain a gold medal on the 4x400m relay.

enior career

In 2004, Meadows finished third in the AAA Indoor 400m and at the World Indoor championships, ran the anchor leg for the British Relay team, however they did not proceed past the heats.

In 2005, she made an attempt to run the qualifying time for the European Indoor Championships 800m, but with little help from opposition, she failed to achieve fast times, front running and winning both her semifinal and final. It was this year that she really started to improve at 800m outdoors, setting 2 personal bests, and finishing third at the AAAs.

In 2006, Jenny set another personal best, finishing third at the AAA indoor 800m, managing to hold-off Karen Harewood. At the World Indoor Championships, she managed to make the semi-finals over 800m, and ran in the 4x400m relay, despite most of the British team choosing to compete at that year's Commonwealth Games. She set three personal bests in consecutive races outdoors, taking it down by over two seconds. She also finished 4th at the AAA Championships. Despite fastly improving at 800m, Meadows still compete over 400m, and won the Northern Counties 400m title.

Meadows started the 2007 indoor season in brilliant form. This was helped by the domestic rivalry between herself and another fast improving 400m/800m runner Marilyn Okoro. Meadows set a new UK record over 600m, and finished 2nd after Okoro at the British Indoor Championships. She ran under 2minutes for the first time, when she won the Glasgow International. At the European Indoor Championships, Meadows found herself boxed, and only managed a 5th place. At the outdoors AAA Championships, Meadows was the joint-favourite, with Marilyn Okoro, over 800m. Meadows and Okoro both took their normal tactic of sitting in the pack, and then attacking on the last bend, whilst Jemma Simpson led the field. However, Simpson, who was coming back from injury, pulled away on the home straight, and took the title, with Meadows finishing in third place. This championships was the last before the first round of selection for the British Team at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Many thought that Simpson, Okoro and Meadows would all receive selection for the 800m as they had achieved the A-Standard in 2007, but injured Rebecca Lyne was just coming back, and as she had achieved the A-standard in the past 12 months, she was eligible for selection. However, there were only three spaces on the team, and one athlete would be disappointed. The team was announced with Simpson and Okoro receiving 800m places, and Meadows was selected for the 4x400m relay. The final 800m place was left open for either Lyne or Meadows, and they would both compete at Crystal Palace before the final selection.At Crystal palace, Meadows finished ahead of Lyne, however it was obvious that Lyne was fast improving, setting a season's best. The final place went to Lyne, and Meadows was only going to compete in the relay. However, just before heading for the flight to Osaka, Lyne withdrew her place from the British team, as she had aggravated her injury. The final 800m place, then went to Meadows. [ [http://www.ukathletics.net/press-centre/news-archive/august-2007/article-18/ Norwich Union GB&NI team update: Meadows in 800m ] ]

At the championships, she qualified into the semi-finals, coming second in her heat with a new outside personal best time of 2:00.14. Fellow British athletes Marilyn Okoro and Jemma Simpson also qualified second in their heats, however Meadows had the fastest time of all three. All three British women failed to progress to the finals, despite both Okoro and Meadows receiving personal bests, and Meadows becoming the 8th fastest British woman of all time over 800m.

Meadows started 2008 in fine style with wins including the AAA title beating Okoro. Selected for the World Indoor team she ran a personal best indoors (1.59.71/3rd British all time list indoors) to make the final. In the final itself Meadows came a distant 5th, having never got into the race through running tactically poorly.

After a slow start to her outdoor campaign, Meadows has already come close to her PB running 1.59.67 to easily head the British rankings and making her the likely first choice for the Olympic team.

On 21/6/08 in Annecy, Meadows ran brilliantly to win her first European Cup victory over 800m. On 18/7/08 Jenny improved her personal best in the 800m to 1:59.11 at the Paris Golden League meeting. On 19/7/08 her place in the Beijing 2008 Great Britain Olympic Team was confirmed along with Marilyn Okoro and Jemma Simpson.

References

* [http://www.powerof10.info/default.asp?page=7E2642342E3F743B5E2D7038&athlete=D062D469D26AD06A Profile at Powerof10 (UK Athletics)]
* [http://www.jennymeadows.com www.jennymeadows.co.uk - The Official Jenny Meadows Website]