James Ellington (born 6 September 1985) is a British sprinter, who races in the

100 metres 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 ...

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 ...

. He has represented his country twice at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

(2012, 2016), is a two-time relay gold medallist with Great Britain at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

(2014, 2016), a silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games with the England relay team, and is a three-time participant at the

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

. At national level, he won back-to-back titles in the 200 m at the

British Athletics Championships The British Athletics Championships is the premier national championship in track and field held in the United Kingdom, and are organised by British Athletics. The event has doubled as the main trials meet for international team selection for ma ...

from 2012 to 2013.

Career

He made his world senior championship debut 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 ...

in Daegu, running 20.82 in the 200 m and finishing 5th in his heat. James was in the

Great Britain Olympic team Athletes from the United Kingdom, all but three of its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories, and the three Crown Dependencies, can compete in the Olympic Games as part of Team GB. Athletes from Northern Ireland (part of the UK) can ...

for the 2012 Summer Olympics, running in the

. He finished fifth in his heat of the

and failed to progress. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he failed to reach the 200 m final, but was part of the England team that won the silver medal in men's 4 × 100 m, running in the heats. At the 2014 European Championships, he reached the semifinal in the men's 200 m, and was part of the Great Britain team that won the gold medal, running in the heat and final. In November 2011 Ellington attracted widespread press coverage by selling his sponsorship rights on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

in the run up to

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. The winning bid was £32,550, but the winning bidder was not genuine. Ellington eventually attracted sponsorship from skincare company King of Shaves, who offered to sponsor him if the eBay deal fell through.

Accident

On 17 January 2017, Ellington was injured in a road accident alongside fellow sprinter

Nigel Levine Nigel Levine (born 30 April 1989) is a British sprint track and field athlete. As well as an impressive sprint talent, Levine made a big impact in his first ever season over 400m in 2007 recording 46.31 and in 2009 reduced that to 45.78. In 2010 ...

; the pair "were riding a motorbike when they were struck head on by a car travelling on the wrong side of the road". They were in

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

, Spain, undertaking warm-weather training with a group of British sprinters. Both athletes were admitted to hospital and were described on 18 January as "conscious and stable". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' suggested that Ellington's injuries were "career ending" and stated that they consisted of "broken bones in his tibia and fibula and eis also believed to have fractured his pelvis".

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellington, James 1985 births Living people English male sprinters British male sprinters Olympic male sprinters Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain European Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists British Athletics Championships winners Black British sportsmen Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games