Wendy Cearns (née Griffiths, born 25 August 1960) is an English former athlete who competed in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

. She won the 1981 UK Championships and 1989

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 ...

titles, the latter in a lifetime best of 56.05 secs. Representing

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 ...

she went on to finish fourth 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 ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Career

As Wendy Griffiths, she finished third at the 1980 UK Championships, before winning the 1981 UK Championships ahead of Sue Morley in 58.51 secs. She went on to finish second behind Morley at the 1982 UK Championships in 58.08 secs, and second behind Gladys Taylor at the 1984 UK Championships, both running 58.2 secs. Competing as Wendy Cearns, she narrowly missed out on Olympic selection in 1988 after she finished fourth at the

(incorporating the Olympic trials) in 57.01, just behind Simone Laidlow who ran 57.00 in third. Cearns then improved her best to 56.85 a week later, to rank number three in the UK for that year behind Sally Gunnell and Elaine McLaughlin. In 1989, she won the

title in a lifetime best of 56.05, to rank second in the UK behind Gunnell. She went on to finish fourth in the final 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 ...

in January 1990.

International competitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cearns, Wendy 1960 births Living people British female hurdlers English female hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for England