Jenny Meadows

In January 1989, 7-year-old Jenny Meadows joined Wigan & District Harriers. She was the 800 metres winner at the English Schools Junior (under 15 in this case) Championships in 1995. In 1998, she was third at the AAA Junior Indoor Championships in the 400 metres. She also finished second over the distance at the English Schools Championships. The 18-year-old represented Great Britain in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships in Riga. A year later, she ran the fastest leg of the women's 4 × 400 metres relay for the British team at the World Junior Championships held in Santiago, helping to secure the gold medal. In 2001 at the European Under-23 Championships in Amsterdam, she finished sixth in the 400 m, and gained a gold in the women's 4 × 400 m relay. ==Senior career==

During the 2000s, she gradually shifted to the 800 metres distance as her specialist event. In 2002, she won her first senior British title in the indoor 800 m and a year later took gold in the indoor 400 m. Apart from relays at several major events, Meadows represented Great Britain at the 2001 European U23 Championships (400 m), 2002 European Indoor Championships (800 m), home 2003 World Indoor Championships (400 m), and 2003 European U23 Championships (400 m). On 19 August, she took the bronze medal in the World Championship 800 m final in a new lifetime best of 1.57.93, becoming the third-fastest British women of all time at the event. 2010: World Indoor Championship & European Championship silver medals Meadows started the season in great form and on 20 February broke the 7-year British indoor 800 m record, formerly held by Kelly Holmes, with a time of 1:59:11 in Birmingham. She went on to improve her record at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar on 14 March, where she was awarded the captaincy of the Great Britain team, and claimed the silver medal in 1:58.43. 2011: European indoor champion & Diamond League winner At the Paris European Indoor Championships, she earned two medals, securing the silver medal for the 800 m event and a silver as part of British women's 4 × 400 metres relay. She was a favourite for the title at the European Indoor Championships in Prague but days before the event contracted a heavy cold/flu and was not at her best. She ran the heats and semi-final but was not well enough to contest the final. Meadows described this as a real low of her career after battling back from injury and drugs cheats for a cold/flu to take away her victory this time. She competed throughout the rest of 2015 but was very disheartened by what she had faced the past few years. She was eliminated in the semi-finals at the World Championships Beijing 2015. ==Non-competitive career==

Meadows was head athletics coach for Manchester City Council before becoming a full-time athlete. She has appeared on the BBC's A Question of Sport in Matt Dawson's team on 13 March 2010, and on the BBC's Mastermind in December 2011, in which her specialist subject was Wigan Warriors. In 2017, she worked as a pacemaker at major events, including IAAF Indoor Permit, IAAF World Challenge and Diamond League meets. After retirement, Meadows has worked as a UK Athletics coach, athletics commentator and event host. She joined the BBC Sport team covering athletics at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She has worked as a commentator for World Athletics at least since 2019, as of 2022. She was a pundit on the BBC coverage of the 2022 European Athletics Championships. Since 2019 Meadows has been a Director of Totally Runable Ltd, a company co-founded by Emily Freeman who work with schools using running to build confidence in sport. She is also part of Keely Hodgkinson's coaching team along with her husband Trevor Painter. Meadows and Painter jointly won the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award. ==Statistics==

International competitions Circuit wins and titles • Diamond League 800 m champion: 2011 :: 800 metres wins. :* 2011: Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, British Grand Prix, London Grand Prix () National titles • British Athletics Championships • 800 metres: 2011 • British Indoor Athletics Championships • 400 metres: 2003 • 800 metres: 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015 ==Notes==