Linda Staines (née Keough, born 28 December 1963) is a female former British

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed mainly in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

. She represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

at the

1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

in both the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay, and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1993 World Championships. She also won four medals at 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 ...

, including an individual silver medal in the 400 metres in 1990 and two relay gold medals.

Career

Keough was born in Hackney,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and was a member of the Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletic Club. In 1980, as a 16-year-old, she ran 53.7 secs for the 400 metres. In 1985, Keough improved her PB to 52.49 at the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. This time ranked her second in the UK for that year, behind

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 ...

. In 1986, she won a silver medal representing

at the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, in the 4x400 metres relay, along with Jane Parry,

Angela Piggford Angela Mary Gilmour (née Piggford, born 17 August 1963) is an English former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres and the 4 x 400 metres relay. In the relay, she represented Great Britain at the 1988 Summer Olympics, 1988 Olym ...

and Cook. In 1988, Keough emerged as the UK's top ranked female 400 m runner. In June, she won the UK National Championships title in 52.25, before improving her personal best to 51.65 in winning the

AAA Championships The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the officia ...

title, earning Olympic selection. At the Seoul Games, she reached the quarter-finals of the 400 metres, running 51.91 and reached the final of the 4 × 400 m relay, where along with

Jennifer Stoute Jennifer Elaine "Jenny" Stoute (born 16 April 1965) is female English former sprinter. She represented Great Britain at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, where she won a bronze medal in the 4x400 metres ...

, Angela Piggford and

Sally Gunnell Sally Jane Janet Gunnell (born 29 July 1966) is a British former track and field athlete, active between 1984 and 1997, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a golden 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunne ...

, she finished sixth. Keough had one of the best seasons of her career in 1989. She retained her UK title, winning in 52.37. Then at the

in Gateshead, she ran 51.66, to finish second behind East Germany's

Grit Breuer Grit Breuer (later Springstein, born 16 February 1972 in Röbel, Bezirk Neubrandenburg) is a German former athlete, who competed in the women's 200 metres, 400 metres, 4×100 m relay, and 4×400 m relay events. She has received injuries as ...

and ahead of that years World Indoor Champion,

Helga Arendt Helga Arendt (24 April 1964 – 11 March 2013) was a West German sprinter who competed mainly in the 400 metres. Biography Arendt was born in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1987 she finished fourth at the 1987 European Indoor Cha ...

of West Germany. In retaining the AAAs 400 m title, she improved her PB to 51.09. She also earned selection for the

IAAF World Cup The IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field competition organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The event was proposed by IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo and was first held in 1977 as t ...

in Barcelona, as a member of Europe's 4 x 400 metres relay squad. The American magazine

Track & Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, ...

ranked her in the top ten of their world merit rankings in the 400 metres, at #7. Representing

at the

1990 Commonwealth Games The 1990 Commonwealth Games ( mi, 1990 Taumāhekeheke Commonwealth) were held in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 January – 3 February 1990. It was the 14th Commonwealth Games, and part of New Zealand's 1990 sesquicentennial celebrations. Partic ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in January, Keough won two medals. In the 400 metres she won a silver medal in 51.63, behind Nigeria'a

Fatima Yusuf Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju (born 2 May 1971 in Owo, Ondo) is a retired Nigerian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres during her career. She won 400 metres race in the 1991 All-Africa Games and was second in the 200 metres race. She is marr ...

and ahead of another Nigerian

Charity Opara Charity Opara-Asonze (born 20 May 1972 in Owerri, Imo State) is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who mainly competed in the 400 metres. She was in particular a successful relay runner, winning the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics. ...

. In the 4x400 metres relay, she won a gold medal, along with Jennifer Stoute, Angela Piggford and Sally Gunnell. Later in 1990, she ran 51.22 to finish fifth in the 400 metres final at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in Split. Then along with Stoute, Pat Beckford and Gunnell, she won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay, running a fine anchor leg in 50.1. Keough reached her peak in 1991. At the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, she reached the semi-finals, where she ran a lifetime best of 50.98. She then went on to run a 49.7 split, in anchoring the British relay team to fourth place. The quartet of Lorraine Hanson,

Phylis Smith Phylis Smith (née Watt, born 29 September 1965) is a female former sprinter from Great Britain who won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay in Barcelona 1992. In 1994, she won a European Championships bronze medal in the 400 me ...

, Sally Gunnell and Keough set a UK record of 3:22.01, that would stand for 16 years. Keough missed the 1992 season due to injury. In 1993, she returned, and spent most of the year concentrating on the 800 metres. She finished second to

Kelly Holmes Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete. Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1,500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set Briti ...

at both the UK Championships and AAAs Championships. She achieved her best, with 2:01.82 at the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Grand Prix. At the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, she was a late replacement for Phylis Smith in the individual 400 metres and reached the semi-finals. Then in the 4 × 400 m relay, she won a bronze medal, along with Smith, Tracy Goddard and Sally Gunnell. In 1994, Keough won another

gold medal, representing

in the 4 × 400 m relay. The original winners, Australia, were disqualified. Her teammates were Phylis Smith, Tracy Joseph (Goddard) and Sally Gunnell. Representing Great Britain, she was a member of the 4 × 400 m relay squad that won at the

, along with Smith, Melanie Neef and Gunnell. In 1996, now competing as Linda Staines, she reached the 400 metres final at the UK Olympic trials in Birmingham but failed to earn selection for Atlanta. In 2005, she set a UK masters record (age 40+) in the 400 metres with 54.81. In 2006, she ran a UK masters record of 2:06.86 for 800 metres. Both records (as of 2014) still stand. In 2007, at 43, she ran the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

in 3:19.28. A year later, at the

Chicago Marathon The Chicago Marathon is a marathon (long-distance foot race) held every October in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the six World Marathon Majors. Thus, it is also a World Athletics Label Road Race. The Chicago Marathon is the fourth-largest r ...

she ran 3:15.03.

Personal life

She married athlete

Gary Staines Gary Martin Staines (born 3 July 1963 in Welwyn Garden City) is a male United Kingdom, British former long-distance runner. Athletics career Staines competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics. He was the silver medallist in the 5000 metres at the 1990 ...

, who also competed at the

, where he reached the final of the 5000 metres.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keough, Linda 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Hackney Central Athletes from London English female sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Olympic female sprinters Medallists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games