Abiodun Adesola "Abi" Oyepitan (born 30 December 1979) is a British

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

athlete, who specialises in the

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

and

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

. She won the 100 m at the

2001 Summer Universiade The 2001 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXI Summer Universiade, was an international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, between 22 August and 1 September. A total of 6,757 athletes from 165 nations took part in 12 sports ...

and at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...

she took a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

with the

4 × 100 m 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

team. She became one of Britain's best female sprinters, becoming the first British female to reach an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

final in a sprint event since

Kathy Cook Kathryn Jane Cook (née Smallwood; born 3 May 1960) is a former elite athlete, specialising in sprint and sprint relays. She is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history. She is three-times an Olympic bronze meda ...

. However, following her performance in the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, she suffered an injury, which all but brought her career to a halt.
She made a winning comeback in 2010, competing in the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

and winning a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

for England at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in the 200 m and a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

when she anchored the 4 × 100 m relay team to a win.

Early career

Abi was born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London to

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

parents. Her name "Adesola" means "crowned with wealth" in

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

. She attended

Bentley Wood High School Bentley Wood High School is an all-girls secondary school, secondary Academy (English school), academy school in Stanmore, London Borough of Harrow, Harrow, England. History BWHS was originally called Heriots Wood Grammar School. About the schoo ...

. She represents

Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers are a UK athletics club based in Hendon, north west London. Their home track is Copthall Stadium. History Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers was founded in 1890 and amalgamated with Barnet Ladies in autumn 1986. The club qua ...

athletics club. Her first outing to a major athletics came at the 1998

World Junior Athletics Championships The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year ...

, where she finished fourth as part of the British 4 x 100 m relay team. She continued to perform well at the junior level, but her progress was interrupted in 2000 by an injury. She managed to bounce back the following year, with her comeback including a silver medal at the European under-23 Championships. She was again part of the 4 x 100 m relay squad at the 2001 World Championships. Although the squad came away empty handed, they set the second fastest time ever by a British squad. She went on to take

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

at the

World Student Games In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

that same year. 2002 saw Abi make the final of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

100 m and improve on this in the relay by taking silver behind an Australian team. She also made the final of the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

, where

Ekaterini Thanou Ekaterini Thanou ( el, Αικατερίνη Θάνου, ; born 1 February 1975), also known as Katerina Thanou, is a Greek former sprinter. She won numerous medals in the 100 metres, including an Olympic silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics ...

took the gold. She continued to improve and in 2003 broke her 200 m personal best in taking her first national senior title. 2004 saw Abi step up to hold her own with the best in the world. At a meeting in

Kalamata Kalamáta ( el, Καλαμάτα ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia reg ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, in May she won the 100 m, then beat the reigning European Champion

Muriel Hurtis Muriel Hurtis-Houairi (born 25 March 1979) is a French track and field athlete.2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Abi was unfortunate in not making the

100 m The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

final. Running in the faster of the two semi-finals, she finished fifth in her heat with a time of 11.18 s, that equalled

LaTasha Colander LaTasha Colander (born August 23, 1976, in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a retired track and field sprinter who competed internationally for the United States. In 1994, on athletic scholarship, Colander enrolled at, and later graduated from, the Univ ...

's fourth placed time that saw her through in the second semi. Despite not making that final, her good form gave her confidence for her preferred event the

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

where she set a personal best in the first round, then comfortably progressed through round two and the semi-final, finishing second in both to

Allyson Felix Allyson Michelle Felix (born November 18, 1985) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. She specialized in the 200 meters from 2003 to 2013, then gradually shifted to the 400 me ...

. She was passed early on in the final by eventual winner

Veronica Campbell Veronica Campbell-Brown CD ( Campbell; born 15 May 1982) is a retired Jamaican track and field sprinter, who specialized in the 100 and 200 meters.

and eventually finished joint 7th, but happy with her overall performance. Her appearance in the 200 m final was the first women's Olympic sprint final (100 + 200 m) to feature a Brit since

Kathy Smallwood-Cook Kathryn Jane Cook (née Smallwood; born 3 May 1960) is a former elite athlete, specialising in sprint and sprint relays. She is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history. She is three-times an Olympic bronze med ...

at the Los Angeles Olympics twenty years previously. She was also the only Briton to reach the sprint finals, all of the men failing for the first time in twenty-eight years, despite later going on to win the 4 × 100 m relay.

After 2004

Following the Olympics, a

stress fracture A stress fracture is a fatigue-induced bone fracture caused by repeated stress over time. Instead of resulting from a single severe impact, stress fractures are the result of accumulated injury from repeated submaximal loading, such as running or ...

injury caused her to miss the 2005 athletics season. She returned to the track in 2006, but the injury continued to limit her performances. In 2010, she returned to take silver in the 200 m and a gold in the 4 x 100 m relay at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

2012 London Olympics

In 2012, Abi came 2nd in the Oslo leg of the Diamond League 200 m Women in 22.71s. She then qualified for 2012 Olympics in London, where she competed in the 100 m and 200 m, making the semi-finals in both events. In 2014, she announced her retirement.

National titles

*AAAs (of England) National 100 metres Champion – 2004 (2nd in 2002, 2003) *AAAs National 200 metres Champion – 2003 (2nd in 2004)

International competitions

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.Oyepitan Abiodun biography

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

Retrieved on 12 May 2009

References

External links

* * * *
archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oyepitan, Abiodun 1979 births Living people People from Westminster Athletes from London English female sprinters British female sprinters Olympic female sprinters Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for Great Britain Medalists at the 2001 Summer Universiade World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain British Athletics Championships winners AAA Championships winners Black British sportswomen English people of Nigerian descent People educated at Bentley Wood High School Alumni of Brunel University London English people of Yoruba descent Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games