Melinda Gainsford-Taylor

Melinda Gainsford-Taylor
AM

Melinda Gainsford-Taylor in 2000
Personal information
Born	(1971-10-01) 1 October 1971 (age 45) Narromine, New South Wales
Height	172 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	67 kg (10 st 8 lb)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Women's 100m & 200m 4 x 100m & 400m relays
Medal record Women's Athletics Representing  Australia World Championships 1995 Gothenburg 4 x 400 m relay World Indoor Championships 1995 Barcelona 200 m 1993 Toronto 200 m Commonwealth Games 1994 Victoria 4 x 100 m relay 1994 Victoria 200 m
Updated on 9 February 2014.

Melinda Gainsford-Taylor AM (born 1 October 1971 in Narromine, New South Wales) is a retired Australian athlete, who specialised in sprint events.

In 1995 Gainsford-Taylor won the World Indoor championship over 200 m. During her career she also won international medals at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. She is the cousin of Australian Olympic backstroke swimmer Josh Watson who won silver in the Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

In 1989, she won the first of three consecutive Australian Junior 100 m titles, also winning the Junior 200 m championships in 1989 and 1991.

At the 1990 World Junior Championships Gainsford reached the semi-finals of both the 100 and 200 metres sprints and assisted the Australian 4 x 100 metres relay team to a new national junior record of 45.01 seconds.

Although Gainsford-Taylor became a world champion in 1995, her senior career really began when she won the first of five 100m/200 m sprint doubles at the 1992 Australian National Championships and won selection in the Olympic team, where she made the semi-finals of the 200m.

In 1993, she won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships, but later in the season broke down in the 100 m semi-finals of the 1993 World Championships in Athletics.