Tasha Danvers
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
19 September 1977 Lambeth, London |
||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||
| Country |
 Great Britain |
||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||
| World finals | 2007 World Championships – 8th | ||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals |
2000– 8th 2008 – 3rd |
||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 6 (2006/2007) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 400 m hurdles: 53.84 s | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Updated on 20 January 2007. | |||||||||||||||||||
Tasha De'Anka Danvers (born 19 September 1977) is a British Olympic bronze medallist, who finished in third place in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was born in London to two athletes, Dorrett McKoy and Donald Danvers, who both moved to the United Kingdom from Jamaica as children.
In 1999, she represented Great Britain at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics with a time of 56.66 seconds in the heats. This failed to see her qualify through the rounds; however it gave her vital experience, which she took on to the following year at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. At the age of 23, Danvers made the final of her first Olympic games, finishing in 8th place, after going out too hard. The following year, she won the 400 m hurdles at the 2001 Summer Universiade.
In 2002, she attended her first Commonwealth Games, in Manchester. She finished 7th in the final, behind the winner Jana Pittman of Australia. An athlete she would meet in the future, Melaine Walker of Jamaica, finished in 4th place. That same year, she also finished 7th in the 2002 European Athletics Championships.
In 2003, she married her Coach, Darrell Smith, the nephew of sprint coach John Smith. From that season, she was styled as Tasha Danvers-Smith. Danvers reverted to her maiden name in 2008; the couple divorced the following year.
Danvers-Smith missed her second Olympics, as she had taken time out for child-birth. This was criticised by many, including the British Olympic Medalist Alan Pascoe, who called her "stupid", as most people thought she would never make a return to competitive athletics. She returned in 2006 to take a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games, behind Pittman, as well as a seventh place in the final of the European Championships. At the end of this year, she reached a career high of 6th in the IAAF rankings.
...
Wikipedia