Heather Armitage Explained

Birth Date:17 March 1933
Birth Place:Colombo, British Ceylon
Height:171 cm
Weight:64 kg
Sport:Athletics
Event:Sprint
Pb:100 m – 11.6 (1956)
200 – 23.79y (1958)
Club:Longwood Harriers, Huddersfield
Show-Medals:yes

Heather Joy Armitage (later Young, then McClelland; born 17 March 1933) is a British retired sprinter and British record holder for the 100 yards.[1]

Sporting career

Armitage won her first major title representing Yorkshire in the all England schools 100 yards in 1951 aged 18.[2] She competed in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics in the 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m events and won two medals in the relay. Her best individual achievement was sixth place in the 100 m in 1956. In 1958, she won three medals at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff including as the anchor in the English 4 × 110 yards relay team alongside Madeleine Weston, June Paul and anchor Dorothy Hyman that won the gold medal and set a new world record of 45.37 seconds in the process.[3]

Later that year Armitage took 100 m gold at the 1958 European Championships in Athletics in Stockholm, thereby becoming the first British woman to win an individual European track title. As of August 2017, she still holds the official British Record for the 100 yards.

Personal life

In the 1950s she married Frank Young, a fellow teacher, and competed as Heather Young. They later divorced, with Armitage marrying the former association football player John McClelland with whom she had a daughter, Alison.

Post athletic career

She retired from competitions in 1960 and devoted herself to teaching, mostly on religious topics.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: UK All-Time Lists: Women - Track (60-600).
  2. Web site: Heather Armitage - Penistone Grammar School's Olympic Medallist . www.pgs-archive.co.uk . 19 June 2018 . 20 June 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140620021655/http://pgs-archive.co.uk/heather-armitage.html . dead .
  3. Web site: UK Athletics . uka.org . 19 June 2018.