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Sally Jane Janet Gunnell OBE
Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
 (born 29 July 1966 in Chigwell
Chigwell

Chigwell is a civil parish and town in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located 11.6 miles north east of Charing Cross. It is served by two London Underground stations and has a London area code....
, Essex
Essex

Essex is a counties of England in the East of England England. The county town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, Essex, close to the Hertfordshire border, which reaches ....
, England) is a former British Olympic
Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
 champion in the 400m hurdles. She has also worked as a television presenter predominantly for the BBC until January 2006.

attended the Bishop Bell High School on High Road in Chigwell.

ell started out in athletics with the Essex Ladies
Woodford Green with Essex Ladies

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies is one of the leading United Kingdom athletics clubs and is based in Woodford, London. The club topped Division 1 of the British Athletics League for the first time in 2005....
 club as an accomplished long jump
Long jump

The long jump is an athletics event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far from the take-off point as possible....
er and pentathlete
Pentathlon

The pentathlon was an athletics event in the Ancient Olympic Games and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. The name derives from Greek language words for "five competitions." The five events were Stadion , amateur wrestling, which were also held as separate events, and the long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw, which were...
 before turning to the sprints and hurdling and is the only woman to have held the European
European Championships in Athletics

The European Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the European Athletic Association. It is organised every four years, the same year as the Commonwealth Games and between the summer Olympic Games cycle....
, World
World

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general....
, Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 and Olympic
Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
 400 metre hurdles titles at the same time.

Gunnell won the 400m hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games
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....
 in Barcelona.






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Sally Jane Janet Gunnell OBE
Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
 (born 29 July 1966 in Chigwell
Chigwell

Chigwell is a civil parish and town in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located 11.6 miles north east of Charing Cross. It is served by two London Underground stations and has a London area code....
, Essex
Essex

Essex is a counties of England in the East of England England. The county town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, Essex, close to the Hertfordshire border, which reaches ....
, England) is a former British Olympic
Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
 champion in the 400m hurdles. She has also worked as a television presenter predominantly for the BBC until January 2006.

Early life

She attended the Bishop Bell High School on High Road in Chigwell.

Career


Athletics

Gunnell started out in athletics with the Essex Ladies
Woodford Green with Essex Ladies

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies is one of the leading United Kingdom athletics clubs and is based in Woodford, London. The club topped Division 1 of the British Athletics League for the first time in 2005....
 club as an accomplished long jump
Long jump

The long jump is an athletics event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far from the take-off point as possible....
er and pentathlete
Pentathlon

The pentathlon was an athletics event in the Ancient Olympic Games and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. The name derives from Greek language words for "five competitions." The five events were Stadion , amateur wrestling, which were also held as separate events, and the long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw, which were...
 before turning to the sprints and hurdling and is the only woman to have held the European
European Championships in Athletics

The European Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the European Athletic Association. It is organised every four years, the same year as the Commonwealth Games and between the summer Olympic Games cycle....
, World
World

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general....
, Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 and Olympic
Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
 400 metre hurdles titles at the same time.

Gunnell won the 400m hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games
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....
 in Barcelona. She set the world record in the same event when she won gold in the 1993 World Championships
1993 World Championships in Athletics

The 4th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany between August 13 and August 22....
. This record was broken by Kim Batten
Kim Batten

Kim Batten is a retired female United States 400m Hurdles champion. She was the 1995 world record holder in the women's 400-meter hurdles.Batten graduated from the Florida State University in 1991, the same year she won her first national championship - the United States National Championships, the first of six national championships ....
 in 1995, but is still the UK record. Her defence of her Olympic title in Atlanta in 1996 was cut short as she pulled up in one of her races, injured. This seemed a particularly cruel blow as this race occurred on her 30th birthday.

In 1996, Gunnell worked as a Red Cross ambassador in Angola
Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....
. In September 1997, she retired after a recurrence of an achilles tendon
Achilles tendon

The Achilles tendon , also known as the calcaneal tendon or the tendo calcaneus, is a tendon of the posterior leg. It serves to attach the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles to the calcaneus bone....
 injury.

Television

In summer 2006, she was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief
Sport Relief

Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief , in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries....
 event Only Fools on Horses
Only Fools on Horses

Only Fools on Horses was a BBC reality television programme produced by Endemol UK. The show's name was a play on that of the sitcom Only Fools and Horses, and first aired on 7 July 2006....
.

Recognition

In 1998, Gunnell was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).

Personal life

She is married to fellow athlete Jonathan Bigg, and has three children; Finley, Luca, and Marley (all boys). She lives in Steyning
Steyning

Steyning is a small town and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea....
, a village just outside Brighton
Brighton

Brighton is a city on the south coast of England and, with its neighbours Hove and Portslade, forms the Brighton and Hove.The ancient settlement of Brighthelmston dates from before the Domesday Book , but it emerged as a health resort during the 18th Century and became a destination for day-trippers after the arrival of the railway in...
 in West Sussex
West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial counties of England until 1974 and the coming into force of the Local Government...
.

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