- Heather Hunte
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Heather Oakes nee Hunte (born
14 August ,1959 ) is a British athlete who competed mainly in the 100 metres.She competed for Great Britain in the
1980 Summer Olympics held inMoscow in the 4 x 100 metres where she won the bronze medal with her team matesKathy Smallwood-Cook ,Beverley Goddard andSonia Lannaman . She placed 8th in the individual 100m.Heather, Kathy and Beverley teamed up again in the
1984 Summer Olympics held inLos Angeles in the 4 x 100 metres where they were joined bySimone Jacobs . They repeated the bronze medal win they had in Moscow in a time of 43.11 well down on the British Record.Heather placed 7th in the 100m in 11.43 the battle for the minor places was tight with 4/100ths of a second separating 5th and 7th place.
She became Commonwealth 100m Champion in Edinburgh, Scotland 1986. She won in a
Personal Best time of 11.20 secs 1/100th ahead of teammatePaula Dunn 11.21 and Canada'sAngella Taylor-Issajenko 11.21.She later anchored the England 4x100 Relay to the Gold medal in 43.39 seconds.
It is worth noting that whilst Heather competed at the highest level for her country she held down a full time job. This is in stark contrast to today's athletes who through lottery funding and sponsorship are able to train and compete without distraction.
She is married to fellow 2 time Olympic Bronze medallist
Gary Oakes .Personal bests
*100m 11.20 Edinburgh SCO,
*4X 100 Relay 42. 43 Moscow, RUS 1/08/80External links
*http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1720972,00.html
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