Shirley Thomas (born 15 June 1963) is a former British sprinter who competed mainly in the 100 meters and 4 x 100 meters relay. She won a silver medal in the relay at the
1983 World Championships in Helsinki. She also competed at the
1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Biography
In 1981, at the
European Junior Championships in Utrecht, Thomas won a silver medal in the 100 meters behind the GDR's Kathrin Bohme, running a wind-assisted 11.43 secs. She also finished sixth in the 200 m final.
In 1982, still only 19, Thomas competed 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 Athens, where she anchored the British sprint relay quartet to a silver medal. Her teammates were,
Wendy Hoyte
Wendy Patricia Hoyte (née Clarke; born 17 December 1957) is a British former sprinter, who won a 1982 Commonwealth Games gold medal and a 1982 European Championships silver medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay. She also competed at the 1976 Mon ...
,
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 ...
(then Smallwood) and
Beverley Callender.
At the inaugural
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, ...
in Helsinki in 1983, Thomas once again anchored Great Britain to a silver medal in the sprint relay, finishing behind the East Germans but managing to hold off the fast finishing Jamaicans, anchored by
Merlene Ottey
Merlene Joyce Ottey (born 10 May 1960) is a Jamaican-Slovenian former track and field sprinter. She began her career representing Jamaica in 1978, and continued to do so for 24 years, before representing Slovenia from 2002 to 2012. She is ran ...
, 42.71 to 42.73. In the 100 meters, she ran 11.48 to reach the semi-finals.
Thomas earned
Olympic selection in 1984. However, at the 100 meters in Los Angeles, she only managed to run 12.13 secs in her heat due to injury. The injury also cost her the chance of an Olympic relay medal, with the British squad going on to win the bronze. Thomas's replacement was
Simmone Jacobs
Kim Simmone Geraldine Jacobs (born 5 September 1966) is a female retired British athlete who competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres. She represented Great Britain at four Olympic Games (1988–96), winning a bronze medal as a 17-year-old at t ...
.
At the time of her sprinting career, Thomas weighed 48 kg and was 1.60 m tall.
Shirley Thomas at Sports Reference
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Shirley Thomas' achievements occurred during the so-called Golden Era of British women's sprinting, made all the more remarkable as many of their rivals were on performance-enhancing drug programs.
Personal Bests
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*100m 11.31 (+1.9) Hendon 3 July 1983 – ran a wind-assisted
In track and field, wind assistance is the benefit that an athlete receives during a race or event as registered by a wind gauge. Wind is one of many forms of weather that can affect sport.
Due to a tailwind helping to enhance the speed of the at ...
11.13 (+3.8) Cmbrawn 27 May 1984
References
British female sprinters
1963 births
Living people
Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
World Athletics Championships medalists
European Athletics Championships medalists
Olympic female sprinters
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