Angela Caroline Thorp (born 7 December 1972) is a female British 100 metres hurdler and sprinter who competed at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Biography

Thorp became the British 100 metres hurdles champion after winning the British

AAA Championships The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the offi ...

title at the 1996 AAA Championships. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Thorp represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in the 100 metres hurdles and Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 100 metres relay, women's 4 × 100 metres relay events. She broke the British 100 metres hurdles record of 1992 Olympic Champion Sally Gunnell at the games, running a personal best time of 12.80 seconds in the semi-final finishing 5th. She therefore did not make one of the top four qualifiers for the final. However, the 3rd placed athlete in this semi-final, Nataliya Shekhodanova of Russia, was subsequently disqualified after the final for doping offences which meant that also after the final Thorp was retrospectively upgraded to 4th place in the semi-final. At the games she was also a part of the British team which finished 8th in the 4 x 100 metres relay final. In 1997, Thorp won both the AAA title at the 1997 AAA Championships and the 1997 British Athletics Championships. Thorp represented England at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, England in the 100 metres hurdles event, at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thorp's British record stood for 15 years until it was broken in 2011 by Tiffany Porter. Thorp said that she was "devastated" at losing her record to an American-born athlete. She said that she would have congratulated an established British athlete who took her record; at the time Jessica Ennis and Sarah Claxton both had personal bests of 12.81s. Ennis later took the British record at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorp, Angie 1972 births Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics British female sprinters English female sprinters British female hurdlers English female hurdlers Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games athletes for England Sportspeople from Wombwell Athletes from Yorkshire 20th-century English sportswomen