Martyn John Bernard (born 15 December 1984 in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) is a British

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

, competing in

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 ...

. Bernard has won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and a

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 ...

in the

2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham, England, from Friday, 2 March to Sunday, 4 March 2007. Birmingham also held the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 9th IAAF Wor ...

. In Osaka in 2007 he set an outdoor best of 2.29 in qualifying, and in the final after clearing 2.21 passed all the way up to 2.33, where he failed twice at 2.35. The reason he did this was, that he was injured and had to limit his jumps.

2008 Summer Olympics

Bernard represented

Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (B ...

in the

. He qualified for the final along with two other Britons with a jump of 2.29.

Personal life

Away from athletics, Martyn graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2007 with a 2:1 degree in psychology, he has recently started a law degree and hopes to pursue this as a career, when he retires form athletics. A natural entertainer Martyn is also very well known for providing spectators with his version of Gene Kelly’s ‘Singing in the Rain’ during the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010. He is cousin to singer and Marks and Spencers model

VV Brown Vanessa Brown (born 24 October 1983), known professionally as VV Brown, is a British indie pop singer-songwriter, model and record producer. Early life Vanessa Brown was born in Northampton, England. She is the eldest of six siblings; her moth ...

and older brother of Luke Bernard.

Competition record

Personal bests

*High jump, outdoor: 2.29 (2007) *High jump, indoor: 2.30 (2007)

References

* 1984 births Living people English male high jumpers British male high jumpers Olympic male high jumpers Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Great Britain Competitors at the 2007 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2005 Summer Universiade European Athletics Championships medalists British Athletics Championships winners AAA Championships winners Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University Black British sportsmen Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games 21st-century English sportsmen Commonwealth Games silver medallists in athletics {{England-highjump-athletics-bio-stub