Kirsty Wade
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Kirsty Wade (née McDermott, born 6 August 1962) is a former middle distance runner who competed for Great Britain and Wales. She is a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 800 metres in Brisbane 1982 and both the 800 metres and 1500 metres in Edinburgh 1986. She competed at the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1992 Olympic Games. She is also a former British record holder in the 800m and the mile.
Wade was born in Girvan, Scotland, moved to Llandrindod Wells, Wales aged 3 and attended school there. She trained in the Elan Valley and joined Brecon Athletic Club as an 11-year-old. As Kirsty McDermott, she won the 1976 AAAs National Under 15 800 m title in 2:11.1 and the 1977 AAAs U17 title in 2:07.74. In 1979, she finished 6th at the European Junior Championships in Poland, running 2:04.72. She first came to senior prominence in 1982, when she won the Commonwealth Games 800 metres title in Brisbane, representing Wales, winning in 2:01.31, just ahead of Scotland's Anne Clarkson (later Purvis), who ran 2:01.52.
After a disappointing 1984, when she failed to qualify for the Olympics, she made a major advance in 1985. At 800 metres, she improved her three-year-old PB of 2:00.56, to set a UK record of 1:57.42, breaking Christina Boxer's six-year-old mark of 1:59.05. This made her the third British woman, after Boxer and Shireen Bailey, to run sub 2:00 minutes for 800 metres. The record would stand for ten years. She also broke the UK record for the mile with 4:19.41 in Oslo. This made her only the fourth woman in history to run a sub 4:20 mile, after Mary Decker, Maricica Puica and Natalya Artyomova. The record would stand for only a month, as Zola Budd ran 4:17.57 in Zurich. American magazine Track & Field News ranked her in the top 10 on their world merit rankings, at both 800 metres (#8) and 1500 m/mile (#9).
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