Abiodun Adesola "Abi" Oyepitan (born 30 December 1979) is a British sprint athlete, who specialises in the 100 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 ...
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 receiv ...
with the 4 × 100 m 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 bet ...
final in a sprint event since Kathy Cook. However, following her performance in the 2004 Athens Olympics, 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 ...
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 be ...
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, B ...
, 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 jo ...
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 academy school in Stanmore, Harrow, England.
History
BWHS was originally called Heriots Wood Grammar School.
About the school
Bentley Wood High School is a multi-cultural girls' comprehensive s ...
. She represents
Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers
Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers are a UK Athletics (sport), athletics club based in Hendon, north west London. Their home track is Barnet Copthall, Copthall Stadium.
History
Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers was founded in 1890 and amalgamated with Barnet L ...
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 ye ...
, 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 ...
at the World Student Games 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 ex ...
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, where Ekaterini Thanou 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,
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 wi ...
, 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 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'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 mete ...
. 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 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 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)
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 fo ...