Fatima ; The Autobiography of Fatima Whitbread

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At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in July, Whitbread broke the Games record twice during her first three throws, and led with a distance of 68.54m ( 224ft 10 + 1⁄ 4in), before Sanderson achieved 69.80m (229ft 0in) and won. [18] Whitbread sat down crying on the field after the result for around 30 minutes. After the medal ceremony, she commented, while still visibly upset: "12 years of hard work. Still no [gold] medal ... I've waited two long years since [the 1984 Summer Olympics]. And now I'm humiliated." [19] Sanderson, who had placed behind Whitbread in all of their seven post-1984 Olympics meetings before the Games, said "I don't mind losing to Fatima in the smaller competitions, but not in the big ones." [20] World record, and European and World championship wins [ edit ] a b "Cotton and Whitbread voted off Celebrity". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 3 December 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022 . Retrieved 13 June 2022. a b "Athletics at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games: Women's Javelin Throw". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Read, Julian (9 May 2016). "Joe Pasquale: Essex boy at heart". Great British Life. Archived from the original on 28 November 2021 . Retrieved 28 November 2021.

a b Stubbs, David (7 August 2012). "TV highlights 08/08/2012: Fatima Whitbread: Growing Up In Care". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 June 2022. Mays, Ken (30 August 1986). "Whitbread finds her touch for first gold medal". The Daily Telegraph. p.29. Whitbread, Fatima; Blue, Adrianne (1988). Fatima: The Autobiography of Fatima Whitbread. London: Pelham. ISBN 978-0720718560.

In the run-up, when she should have been training hard, she lost “all sense of time. My procrastination was terrible. When I was throwing, it was all over the place – 30 metres, 40 metres, 70 metres.” UK Championships". Athletics Weekly. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018 . Retrieved 12 June 2022.

Is she angry at the system that failed her so spectacularly? “Well, it does make me …” She pauses. “Even today, some of the crazy policies – ousting kids [from care] at 16 is appalling. My son still lives at home; he’s 25. At 16, these are vulnerable kids.” At present, councils are allowed to put 16- and 17-year-old children in unregulated accommodation, although a ban on the practice will come into force in October. “For a lot of young kids, history starts repeating itself: they start getting in trouble, or offending, and it costs the state a whole lot more. These young kids need that support, because once they get out there they’re easily preyed upon. They’re still kids.”Fatima Whitbread, (née Vedad; 3 March 1961) is a British retired javelin thrower. She broke the world record with a throw of 77.44 m (254 ft 3⁄4 in) in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, and became the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Whitbread went on to win the European title that year, and took the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. Read more on Wikipedia

As a child in the 80s, I say, I loved watching Whitbread and Sanderson – so strong and powerful, like warrior goddesses. She smiles: “I think there were a lot of people who felt like that.” I was also proud to be representing our Women’s AAA and English Athletics under a remarkable president Maria Hartman. She was a force of nature who single handedly helped to create a successful competitive program for ‘her girls’ as she would call us. What made her a good – at one stage, the best – thrower? “I think the inner strength that I created as a child. If you asked me: ‘Would I change anything about my life?’ I’d say no, because that created who I am. I had steely inner strength and a sense of determination to succeed because of my childhood. I possibly wouldn’t have had that otherwise.” She pauses. “There are some things you would have wanted to change.” a b c d e Henderson, Jason (2 March 2021). "Fatima Whitbread at 60". Athletics Weekly. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022 . Retrieved 7 May 2022.I was abandoned as a baby, and some would say left to die, in a flat in London, and a neighbour heard that baby crying for a couple of days and didn’t see anyone coming or going, so she reported it,’ she said. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Lamont, Tom (26 July 2009). "Frozen in time". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020 . Retrieved 13 July 2020. In 1997, she married Andy Norman, the controversial athletics promoter, with whom she had a son, Ryan, a year later. (Norman had been implicated by the coroner in the 1994 suicide of Cliff Temple, a Sunday Times journalist who had been investigating Norman’s conduct as promotions officer of the British Athletics Federation.) After her traumatic childhood, she was determined that her son’s would be different. “I felt I would be a good mum,” she says. “I believed in myself. It was important for me to be able to prove that I could be a good mum and break the mould of what I’d been through.”

The 61-year-old won a silver medal representing Britain in the javelin throw at the Olympics in Seoul 1988, having won bronze in 1984 in Los Angeles. Margaret and her husband eventually fostered Whitbread, who changed her surname, Vedad, by deed poll. At 14, she finally had a family, which included the Whitbreads’ two young sons. “That was amazing, the best thing that happened, to be a part of a family, which I’d always wanted,” she says. “It wasn’t straightforward, because all families have their problems. Both as mum and daughter and athlete and coach, we worked it out somehow – and we conquered the world.” She and Norman had experienced years of infertility, followed by a miscarriage, before their son was born via a third round of IVF. Norman left her for another athlete when Ryan was small, although he and Whitbread managed to remain close. Then, in 2007, he died suddenly, leaving Whitbread to raise Ryan alone. On top of that, it emerged that Norman had taken out loans, partly in Whitbread’s name, which put her tens of thousands of pounds in debt. She had to sell the family home. The fees from reality TV kept her afloat and helped her rebuild her profile. In January 1995 Whitbread was interviewed by Andrew Neil, on his one-on-one show Is This Your Life? on Channel4 which included discussion of Cliff Temple's suicide. [57] Writing in The Guardian, Nancy Banks-Smith described how Whitbread had "stonewalled with stoicism and without sweating" and been unclear in her answers about this. Whitbread also spoke about her unhappiness at how Ben Johnson had been treated after being found doping with steroids. [57] Neil's treatment of Whitbread attracted viewer complaints. [58] Fatima Whitbread was born on 3 March, 1961 in London, United Kingdom. Discover Fatima Whitbread's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is She in this year and how She spends money? Also learn how She earned most of networth at the age of 62 years old? Popular As

Margaret Whitbread had an international career that peaked when she made a personal height of 45.18m in the year 1959. It was under her guidance that Fatima thrived and became a professional javelin thrower. Fatima was mentored by her to achieve a reach of 52 throws that exceeded 70 meters over the length of professional career. Fatima became the UK No I on six different occasions over the decade to 1988.