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| Born | 17 April 1981 England |
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| Height | 1.56 metres (5 ft 1 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 47 kilograms (100 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country | Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Wigan & District Harriers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turned pro | 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 400 m: 74 (2003) 800 m: 3 (2009) |
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| Personal best(s) | 400 m 52.50 800 m 1.57.93 800 m (i) 1:58.43 |
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Medal record
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| Updated on February 26, 2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jennifer Brenda "Jenny" Meadows (born 17 April 1981 in Wigan) is a British athlete. Her main event is the 800 m, although she previously competed over the 400 m.
She is the third-fastest British woman over 800 m, behind Kelly Holmes and Kirsty Wade.
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Meadows attended the Deanery High School on Frog Lane in Wigan. At Liverpool Hope University, she studied English with Physical Education and Recreation.
Jenny Meadows (AKA Jennifer Meadows) was the winner in the English Schools Junior Championships in 800 m 1995. In 1998, she was 3rd at the AAA Junior Indoor Championships over 400 m. She also made her junior international debut and finished second in the English Schools Championships.
In 2000, she ran the fastest leg for the Great British team at the World Junior Championships, helping to secure the gold medal. In 2001, she finished 6th at the European Under 23 Championships, and gained a gold medal on the 4 x 400 m relay.
In 2004, Meadows finished third in the AAA Indoor 400 m and at the World Indoor championships, ran the anchor leg for the British relay team, however they did not proceed past the heats.
In 2005, she made an attempt to run the qualifying time for the European Indoor Championships 800 m, but with little help from opposition, she failed to achieve fast times, front running and winning both her semifinal and final. It was this year that she really started to improve at 800 m outdoors, setting two personal bests, and finishing third at the AAAs.
In 2006, Meadows set another personal best, finishing third at the AAA indoor 800 m, managing to hold off Karen Harewood. At the World Indoor Championships, she managed to make the semi-finals over 800 m, and ran in the 4 x 400 m relay, despite most of the British team choosing to compete at that year's Commonwealth Games. She set three personal bests in consecutive races outdoors, taking it down by over two seconds. She also finished 4th at the AAA Championships. Despite fastly improving at 800 m, Meadows still compete over 400 m, and won the Northern Counties 400m title.
Meadows started the 2007 indoor season in brilliant form. This was helped by the domestic rivalry between herself and another fast improving 400 m/800 m runner Marilyn Okoro. Meadows set a new UK record over 600 m, and finished 2nd after Okoro at the British Indoor Championships. She ran under 2 minutes for the first time, when she won the Glasgow International. At the European Indoor Championships, Meadows found herself boxed, and only managed a 5th place.
At the outdoors AAA Championships, Meadows was the joint favourite, with Marilyn Okoro, over 800 m. Meadows and Okoro both took their normal tactic of sitting in the pack, and then attacking on the last bend, whilst Jemma Simpson led the field. However, Simpson, who was coming back from injury, pulled away on the home straight, and took the title, with Meadows finishing in third place. This championships was the last before the first round of selection for the British Team at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Many thought that Simpson, Okoro and Meadows would all receive selection for the 800 m as they had achieved the A-Standard in 2007, but injured Rebecca Lyne was just coming back, and as she had achieved the A-standard in the past 12 months, she was eligible for selection. However, there were only three spaces on the team, and one athlete would be disappointed. The team was announced with Simpson and Okoro receiving 800 m places, and Meadows was selected for the 4 x 400 m relay. The final 800 m place was left open for either Lyne or Meadows, and they would both compete at Crystal Palace before the final selection. At Crystal palace, Meadows finished ahead of Lyne, however it was obvious that Lyne was fast improving, setting a season's best. The final place went to Lyne, and Meadows was only going to compete in the relay. However, just before heading for the flight to Osaka, Lyne withdrew her place from the British team, as she had aggravated her injury. The final 800 m place, then went to Meadows.
At the championships, she qualified into the semi-finals, coming second in her heat with a new outside personal best time of 2:00.14. Fellow British athletes Marilyn Okoro and Jemma Simpson also qualified second in their heats, however Meadows had the fastest time of all three. All three British women failed to progress to the finals, despite both Okoro and Meadows receiving personal bests, and Meadows becoming the 8th fastest British woman of all time over 800 m.
Meadows started 2008 in fine style with wins including the AAA title beating Okoro. Selected for the World Indoor team she ran a personal best indoors (1.59.71/3rd British all time list indoors) to make the final. In the final itself Meadows came 5th.
On 21 June 2008 in Annecy, Meadows ran brilliantly to win her first European Cup victory over 800 m. On 18 July 2008 Meadows improved her personal best in the 800 m to 1:59.11 at the Paris Golden League meeting. On 19 July 2008 her place in the Beijing 2008 Great Britain Olympic Team was confirmed along with Marilyn Okoro and Jemma Simpson. Meadows qualified for the semi-final of the 800 m in the Olympic Games after finishing 3rd in her heat with a time of 2.00.33, and in the semi itself ran close to her personal best in a time of 1.59.43, finishing in 6th place.
Meadows had a successful indoor season during 2009 winning the UK Championships and European Indoor Trials, setting a new indoor personal best of 1.59.52 in the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix and finishing in 4th place in the European Indoor Championships in Turin, Italy.
On 27 July 2009, her place in the Great Britain Team for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany, in August was confirmed, along with Jemma Simpson and Marilyn Okoro. On 28 July 2009, Meadows set a new outdoor personal best of 1.58.63 at the IAAF Super Grand Prix, Herculis, Monaco.[1] On August 19, Meadows took the bronze medal in the 800 m World Championship finals in a new personal best of 1.57.93. In a quick BBC interview after winning the bronze medal, Meadows commented: "It proves you should never say never, you should always believe in yourself. If you work hard and keep the faith, good things will happen."[2]
Meadows started the season in great form and on 20 February 2010 broke the British indoor 800 m record, formerly held by Kelly Holmes, with a 1:59:11 in Birmingham. She won silver at the World Indoor Championships in Doha on the 14th March 2010, setting a personal best and a new British indoor record of 1:58.43 which she previously set on 20 February 2010. At the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona Meadows reached the final and came back with a bronze medal.
Jenny Meadows spent December (2010) and January (2011) training at Club La Santa in Lanzarote[3] and moved onto South Africa to continue training with her physiotherapy and fitness team Harris & Ross[4] as she aims to reach the World Outdoor Championships in South Korea. On 6 March 2011, she achieved Silver in the 800m and returned to the track an hour later to anchor the 4x400m relay team to another Silver in the European Indoor Championships in Paris.
On the 31st July 2011, at the age of 30, Jenny finally won her first national outdoor senior title with an 800m victory at the Aviva National Championships in Birmingham, to become National Champion.
Jenny Meadows used to be head athletics coach for Manchester City Council. 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.
She married Trevor Painter in 2006. Painter is also her coach and a former 400 m sprinter, who played rugby league for Wigan and took part in the England 4 x 400 m team (an event in which she has taken part).