Marcus Adam
Encyclopedia
Marcus Adam is a retired English
sportsperson, who represented Great Britain
as both a sprinter
and a bobsledder
. Competing in athletics, he won the gold medal in the 200 metres
at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
, and also won gold and silver medals respectively in the 4 x 100 metres relay
at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and 1990 European Championships
. He is also a member of the team which holds the British record
in the 4 x 200 metres relay. After retiring from athletics, he shifted to the sport of bobsleigh
. He competed in the two-man bobsleigh event at the 2002 Winter Olympics
(finishing in tenth place), having previously competed as a sprinter at the 1992 Summer Olympics
(finishing in eighth place in the 200 metres and fourth place in the 4 x 100 metres relay).
. At the 1987 European Junior Athletics Championships, he won gold medals in both the 200 metres and the 4 x 100 metres relay. In the same year he won his first medal at the UK Championships, with a bronze medal in the 100 metres
behind Linford Christie
and Jamie Henderson
.
In 1989, Adam started by winning the silver medal at the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) Indoor Championships. He then won both the 100 and 200 metres at the UK Championships, and at the AAA Championships in the same year he won the silver medal in the 100 metres and the gold medal in the 200 metres. Also, in June 1989 he helped establish a British record of 1:21.29 minutes in the rarely contested 4 x 200 metres relay (together with Ade Mafe
, Linford Christie and John Regis
). This record still stands. In February 1990 he helped establish a new British indoor record of 1:22.99 minutes in the same event. (The time was beaten in March 1991.) Also in the 1989–90 indoor season, Adam won the 200 metres race at the AAA Indoor Championships.
Adam's international breakthrough came in the 1990 outdoor season. One of the season highlights was the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Adam finished fourth in the 100 metres event with a wind-aided
time of 10.14 seconds, 0.02 seconds behind bronze medallist Bruny Surin
. He then won the 200 metres with a wind-aided time of 20.10 seconds, ahead of his fellow English athletes John Regis and Ade Mafe, who finished second and third. Adam would never run faster than these two wind-aided times at the Commonwealth Games. He went on to win a second gold medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay (together with Clarence Callender, John Regis and Linford Christie). Adam also participated in the 1990 European Championships
. He reached the semi-finals of the 200 metres
, and won a sliver medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay
(together with Darren Braithwaite
, John Regis and Linford Christie). The time of 37.98 seconds was a British record, which would stand until 1993.
Adam achieved a personal best time in the 100 metres in July 1991, clocking in 10.23 seconds at a meet in Birmingham.
In the 1991–92 indoor season, Adam competed at the 1992 European Indoor Championships
, reaching the semi-finals of the 200 metres.
In June 1992, Adam achieved his lifetime best time in the 200 metres, with a time of 20.41 seconds at a meet in Dijon
.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Adam reached the final of the 200 metres, finishing in eighth place with a time of 20.80 seconds. He was also a member of the British 4 x 100 m relay
team which finished in fourth place. Domestically, Adam won the bronze medal in 100 metres at the AAA Championships, and at the UK Championships he won the bronze medal in 100 metres and the gold medal in the 200 metres.
Adam was then absent from the spotlight for several years. He made a brief return in the winter of 1999, when he competed at the World Indoor Championships
, and won the 200 metres event at the AAA Indoor Championships.
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
sportsperson, who represented Great Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as both a sprinter
Sprint (race)
Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...
and a bobsledder
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....
. Competing in athletics, he won the gold medal in the 200 metres
200 metres
A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...
at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
Athletics at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
At the 1990 Commonwealth Games, the athletics events were held at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand from 28 January to 3 February 1990. A total of 42 events were contested, 23 by male and 19 by female athletes.-Men:-Women:...
, and also won gold and silver medals respectively in the 4 x 100 metres relay
4 x 100 metres relay
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...
at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and 1990 European Championships
1990 European Championships in Athletics
The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, a city in Croatia .It was the last participation of East Germany ....
. He is also a member of the team which holds the British record
British records in athletics
British records in athletics are the best performances in athletics events by athletes representing the United Kingdom which are ratified by the Amateur Athletic Association and the British Amateur Athletic Board .-History:...
in the 4 x 200 metres relay. After retiring from athletics, he shifted to the sport of bobsleigh
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....
. He competed in the two-man bobsleigh event at the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
(finishing in tenth place), having previously competed as a sprinter at the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
(finishing in eighth place in the 200 metres and fourth place in the 4 x 100 metres relay).
Athletics
Adam was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. At the 1987 European Junior Athletics Championships, he won gold medals in both the 200 metres and the 4 x 100 metres relay. In the same year he won his first medal at the UK Championships, with a bronze medal in the 100 metres
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
behind Linford Christie
Linford Christie
Linford Cicero Christie OBE is a former sprinter from the United Kingdom. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games...
and Jamie Henderson
Jamie Henderson
Jamie Henderson is an American Football player . He played cornerback at The University of Georgia and was drafted in the 4th round of the 2001 draft by The New York Jets. He played for the New York Jets from 2001–2003. He is the cousin of American football player, Reggie Brown for the Tampa Bay...
.
In 1989, Adam started by winning the silver medal at the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) Indoor Championships. He then won both the 100 and 200 metres at the UK Championships, and at the AAA Championships in the same year he won the silver medal in the 100 metres and the gold medal in the 200 metres. Also, in June 1989 he helped establish a British record of 1:21.29 minutes in the rarely contested 4 x 200 metres relay (together with Ade Mafe
Ade Mafe
Adeoye "Ade" Mafe is a retired English sprinter. He was a fitness coach for West Bromwich Albion, having previously worked for Chelsea, Millwall and the Milton Keynes Dons....
, Linford Christie and John Regis
John Regis (athlete)
John Paul Lyndon Regis, MBE is a retired English sprinter. During his career, he won gold medals in the 200 metres at the 1989 World Indoor Championships and the 1990 European Championships, and a silver medal in the distance at the 1993 World Championships.He was a member of the British teams...
). This record still stands. In February 1990 he helped establish a new British indoor record of 1:22.99 minutes in the same event. (The time was beaten in March 1991.) Also in the 1989–90 indoor season, Adam won the 200 metres race at the AAA Indoor Championships.
Adam's international breakthrough came in the 1990 outdoor season. One of the season highlights was the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Adam finished fourth in the 100 metres event with a wind-aided
Wind assistance
Wind assistance is a term in track and field, which refers to the wind level during a race or event as registered by a wind gauge. Wind is one of many forms of weather which can affect sport....
time of 10.14 seconds, 0.02 seconds behind bronze medallist Bruny Surin
Bruny Surin
Bruny Surin is a Canadian athlete, winner of a gold medal in the 4x100 m relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 2008 he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics 4x100 relay team.-Career:...
. He then won the 200 metres with a wind-aided time of 20.10 seconds, ahead of his fellow English athletes John Regis and Ade Mafe, who finished second and third. Adam would never run faster than these two wind-aided times at the Commonwealth Games. He went on to win a second gold medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay (together with Clarence Callender, John Regis and Linford Christie). Adam also participated in the 1990 European Championships
1990 European Championships in Athletics
The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, a city in Croatia .It was the last participation of East Germany ....
. He reached the semi-finals of the 200 metres
1990 European Championships in Athletics - Men's 200 metres
These are the official results of the Men's 200 metres event at the 1990 European Championships in Split, Yugoslavia. The final was held on 30 August 1990.-Final:-Semifinals:-See also:* 1988 Men's Olympic 200 metres...
, and won a sliver medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay
1990 European Championships in Athletics - Men's 4 x 100 metres relay
These are the official results of the Men's 4x100 metres event at the 1990 European Championships in Split, Yugoslavia.-Final:-See also:* 1991 Men's World Championships 4x100m Relay * 1992 Men's Olympic 4x100m Relay...
(together with Darren Braithwaite
Darren Braithwaite
Darren Braithwaite is a retired British sprinter.Braithwaite was a member of the British team which set a world indoor record for the rarely contested 4 x 200 metres relay on 3 March 1991 in Glasgow...
, John Regis and Linford Christie). The time of 37.98 seconds was a British record, which would stand until 1993.
Adam achieved a personal best time in the 100 metres in July 1991, clocking in 10.23 seconds at a meet in Birmingham.
In the 1991–92 indoor season, Adam competed at the 1992 European Indoor Championships
1992 European Indoor Championships in Athletics
The 22nd European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Genoa, a city in Italy, in 1992. This was the first indoor championship which was the start of the new two year cycle for the games.-Track:-Field:-Medal table:-External links:...
, reaching the semi-finals of the 200 metres.
In June 1992, Adam achieved his lifetime best time in the 200 metres, with a time of 20.41 seconds at a meet in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Adam reached the final of the 200 metres, finishing in eighth place with a time of 20.80 seconds. He was also a member of the British 4 x 100 m relay
Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics - Men's 4 x 100 metre relay
These are the official results of the men's 4 x 100 metres relay event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were a total number of 25 nations competing.-Medalists:* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals....
team which finished in fourth place. Domestically, Adam won the bronze medal in 100 metres at the AAA Championships, and at the UK Championships he won the bronze medal in 100 metres and the gold medal in the 200 metres.
Adam was then absent from the spotlight for several years. He made a brief return in the winter of 1999, when he competed at the World Indoor Championships
1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships
The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, president of the IAAF, characterized the...
, and won the 200 metres event at the AAA Indoor Championships.
Bobsleigh
Adam later took up the sport of bobsleigh. As a brakeman, he finished tenth in the two-man event at the 2002 Winter Olympics together with Lee JohnstonLee Johnston
Lee Johnston, born , is an English bobsledder who has competed since 1995. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of tenth in the two-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002....
.
External links
- Marcus Adam, British Olympic Association
- Winter Olympics 2002 Team GB - Marcus Adam, BBC Sport