Margaret Simpson (born 31 December 1981 in Krapa) is a

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian heptathlete. She won a bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships, setting several personal bests in the process. Her personal best is 6423 points, achieved in Götzis in May 2005.

Biography

In one of her earliest international senior performances, she placed fourth at the

1999 All-Africa Games The 7th All-Africa Games (; ), also known as Johannesburg 1999 (), was a sport event held from 10 to 19 September 1999, in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa. 53 countries participated in eighteen sports. Netball was included as a demonstrati ...

. She was the junior champion at the

1999 African Junior Athletics Championships The 1999 African Junior Athletics Championships was the fourth edition of the biennial, continental athletics (sport), athletics tournament for African athletes aged junior athletics, 19 years or younger. It was held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 22–2 ...

, but failed to finish in the event at the

2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Santiago, Chile between 17 and 22 October 2000. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1122 athle ...

. She was selected for the heptathlon at the

2001 World Championships in Athletics The 8th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 3 and 12 August 2001 and was the first time the event ...

and placed 13th overall. Senior success came the following year as she took the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, ...

and then won the heptathlon

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the

2002 African Championships in Athletics The 13th African Championships in Athletics were held in Tunis and Radès, Tunisia in August, 2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a maj ...

. She failed to finish at the

2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the streets of Paris and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, F ...

. In 2004, Simpson became African Champion for a second time and followed this result with a ninth place at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

.Simpson Margaret
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-04-19. Simpson reached the global podium for the first time at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics (, ), under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first ...

, taking third place with the second best performance of her career with a tally of 6375 points. She had set a personal best of 6423 points at the

Hypo-Meeting The Hypo-Meeting is an annual athletics (sport), athletics competition that takes place in the Mösle stadium in Götzis in Vorarlberg (Austria) held in the spring (late May, early June). In its history, a total of three world records have been se ...

earlier that season. She missed the 2006 season but returned the year after with a gold medal performance at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games (; ), also known as Algiers 2007 (), took place from 11 to 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers became the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were a ...

. She failed to finish at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member feder ...

later that season. She missed all of the 2008 season after this. She was off form in 2009 and registered a season's best of 5872 points at the

Meeting International d'Arles The Meeting International in Arles, France was an annual athletics meet in which international athletes competed in the Decathlon and Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derive ...

. She was back to good form at the

2010 African Championships in Athletics The 2010 African Championships in Athletics was held in Nairobi, Kenya from, 28 July to 1 August 2010. Background The African Championships in Athletics were held in Kenya for the first time. Previously two major athletics events have been held ...

, where she won a third heptathlon title in a score of 6031 points. She also managed eighth in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

for African at the

2010 IAAF Continental Cup The 1st IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field sporting event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations. Originally scheduled as the 11th IAAF World Cup in Athletics, it was renamed in 200 ...

. She won the 2011 edition of the

Multistars Multistars is an annual international Combined track and field events competition held in Desenzano del Garda, Italy in late April or early May as part of the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge. International athletes compete in the decathlon ...

meeting in

Desenzano del Garda Desenzano del Garda () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. It borders the communes of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Lonato, Padenghe sul Garda, and Sirmione. History T ...

with a score of 6270 points, defeating the 2010 champion Marina Goncharova. She was fourteenth at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...

and won a third straight title at the

2011 All-Africa Games The 10th All-Africa Games (), also known as Maputo 2010, took place between September 3–18, 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo's hosting marked the third time the Games was held in the southern part of the continent. Host awarding In April 20 ...

. She won the African Combined Events Championships in both 2011 and 2012. She withdrew from the heptathlon at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

due to a kidney infection. Simpson is renowned for her strong

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

, her personal best in which is 56.36 metres.

Achievements

Competition record

2011 World Championships

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Margaret 1981 births Living people Ghanaian heptathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Ghana Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Ghana Ghanaian female athletes African Games gold medalists for Ghana African Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2003 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 All-Africa Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2011 All-Africa Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Ashanti Region Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics