Margaret Simpson (born 31 December 1981 in Krapa) is a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian

heptathlete A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

. She won a bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships, setting several personal bests in the process. Her personal best is 6423 points, achieved in Götzis in May 2005.

Biography

In one of her earliest international senior performances, she placed fourth at the

1999 All-Africa Games The 7th All-Africa Games were held from September 10, 1999, to September 19, 1999, in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa. 53 countries participated in eighteen sports. Netball was included as a demonstration sport. The South Africans hosted abo ...

. She was the junior champion at the 1999 African Junior Athletics Championships, but failed to finish in the event at the

2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Santiago, Chile between 17 and 22 October 2000. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1122 athle ...

. She was selected for the heptathlon at the

2001 World Championships in Athletics The 8th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 3 August and 12 August and was the first time the event ...

and placed 13th overall. Senior success came the following year as she took the bronze medal 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 ...

and then won the heptathlon gold medal at the 2002 African Championships in Athletics. She failed to finish at the

2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Men's results T ...

. In 2004, Simpson became African Champion for a second time and followed this result with a ninth place at 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), ...

.Simpson Margaret
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-04-19. Simpson reached the global podium for the first time at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...

, taking third place with the second best performance of her career with a tally of 6375 points. She had set a personal best of 6423 points at the

Hypo-Meeting The Hypo-Meeting is an annual athletics (sport), athletics competition that takes place in the Mösle stadium in Götzis in Vorarlberg (Austria) held in the spring (late May, early June). In its history, a total of three world records have been se ...

earlier that season. She missed the 2006 season but returned the year after with a gold medal performance at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games took place between 11 and 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers is the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were held there. Besides Algeria, only Nig ...

. She failed to finish at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

later that season. She missed all of the 2008 season after this. She was off form in 2009 and registered a season's best of 5872 points at the Meeting International d'Arles. She was back to good form at the

2010 African Championships in Athletics The 2010 African Championships in Athletics was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 July to 1 August 2010. Background The African Championships in Athletics were held in Kenya for the first time. Previously two major athletics events have been held i ...

, where she won a third heptathlon title in a score of 6031 points. She also managed eighth in the high jump for African at the

2010 IAAF Continental Cup The 1st IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field sporting event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations. Originally scheduled as the 11th IAAF World Cup in Athletics, it was renamed in 200 ...

. She won the 2011 edition of the

Multistars Multistars is an annual international Combined track and field events competition held in Lana, South Tyrol, Lana, Italy in late April or early May as part of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge. Established in 1988 the meeting took place in ...

meeting in

Desenzano del Garda Desenzano del Garda ( lmo, label= Brescian, Dezensà) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. It borders the communes of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Lonato, Padenghe sul ...

with a score of 6270 points, defeating the 2010 champion Marina Goncharova. She was fourteenth at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

and won a third straight title at the 2011 All-Africa Games. She won the

African Combined Events Championships The African Combined Events Championships (french: Championnats d'Afrique d'Épreuves Combinées) is an international athletics competition between African athletes in the disciplines of men's decathlon and women's heptathlon. It became part of the ...

in both 2011 and 2012. She withdrew from the heptathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics due to a kidney infection. Simpson is renowned for her strong

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the wom ...

, her personal best in which is 56.36 metres.

Achievements

Competition record

2011 World Championships

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Margaret 1981 births Living people Ghanaian heptathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Ghana Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Ghana Ghanaian female athletes Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics African Games gold medalists for Ghana African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2003 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2011 All-Africa Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games People from Ashanti Region