Nicola Sanders

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**Nicola Sanders**

Country	Great Britain
Club
Date of birth	23 September 1982
Place of birth	High Wycombe, England
Turned Pro	2004
Personal Best	400m 49.65 400mH 55.32
Titles
Highest World Ranking:	400m: 5 (2007)
Infobox last updated on: June 3, 2007.

Medal record
Women’s athletics
World Championships
Silver	2007 Osaka	400 m
Bronze	2005 Helsinki	4x400 m relay
Bronze	2007 Osaka	4x400 m relay

Nicola Sanders (born June 23, 1982) is a British sprinter and hurdler. Nicola won a bronze medal in the European Junior Championships in Riga in 1999 at 400m hurdles. That same year she was 4th in the 400m hurdles at the World Youth Championships. In 2000 she was 5th in the World Junior Championships but won gold in the Commonwealth Youth Championships.

In 2005 she finished 6th (4th 4 x 400m relay) at the World Student Games.

In the 2005 Helsinki World Championships she reached the semi finals .Together with Lee McConnell, Donna Fraser and Christine Ohuruogu she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay.

She was 4th in the Commonwealth Games of 2006 in the 400m Hurdles and won the 4 x 400m relay (but were subsequently disqualified).

Since then she has focused on 400m (due to injury issues) and rarely participates in hurdles races.

She finished 6th in the 400m final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. In 2007, she took gold in the 400m competition in the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham, with a personal best and national record of 50.02 seconds. This was the 5th fastest indoor 400m time in history. She also won a bronze in the 4 x 400m relay.

In 2007 she had suffered knee and achilles problems but on the 27th August 2007 Nicola broke 50 seconds for the first time in her career recording 49.77 seconds in the semi final of the 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan to move to #3 on the British all time list. She then went on to finish 2nd in the final, behind fellow Briton, Christine Ohuruogu. Sanders set another personal best of 49.65, which puts her as the fourth fastest British athlete over 400m, after Kathy Cook, Katharine Merry and Ohuruogu, who also set a personal best in the World Championship final.

During the final day of the championships on September 2nd, Sanders anchored the British 4x400m team to a bronze medal. In so doing she became the first female UK runner to break 49 seconds for a 400 metre relay leg, with a time of 48.8 seconds, beating Sally Gunnell's previous record of 49.46 seconds.