Jason Gardener

Jason Carl Gardener, MBE (born 18 September 1975) is a retired British sprint athlete. He won an Olympic gold medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2004 Olympic Games, and is also the 2004 World Indoor Champion at 60 metres.

For the basketball player, see Jason Gardner. For the choreographer, see Jason Gardiner.

Jason Gardener
MBE
Personal information
NationalityEnglish
Born (1975-09-18) 18 September 1975
Bath, England
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Sport
SportRunning
Event(s)60 metres, 100 metres, 200 metres
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
2004 Athens4x100 m relay
World Championships
1999 Sevilla4x100 m relay
2005 Helsinki4x100 m relay
World Indoor Championships
2004 Budapest60 m
1999 Maebashi60 m
2003 Birmingham60 m
European Indoor Championships
2000 Ghent60 m
2002 Vienna60 m
2005 Madrid60 m
2007 Birmingham60 m
1998 Valencia60 m
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
1998 Kuala Lumpur 4x100m relay
2002 Manchester 4x100m relay

Athletics career

Gardener was born in Bath, Somerset to a Jamaican father and British mother, and started his career at the World Junior Championships in 1994, where he was placed second in the individual 100 m and bettered this to take his first gold medal as part of the 4 × 100 m relay team.

Joining the senior ranks, and coached by Malcolm Arnold for his entire career, Gardener took another silver in the 60 m, at the European Indoor Championships of 1998. He was not chosen for the relay team, which took gold.

In 1999 he took bronze at the World indoors in the 60 m, breaking the British record. and later that year saw him run 9.98 s breaking the 10 second barrier for the first time in the 100 m. He was also part of the national record breaking 4 × 100 m relay team along with Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, and Dwain Chambers that they set in Seville, Spain running 37.73 seconds.

2000 saw Gardener go one better in the European indoor 60 m taking gold as well as breaking the national 50 m record with a time of 5.61 s. Unfortunately he became injured during the summer and although making it to Sydney for the Olympics he did not progress through the early rounds.

He retained his European indoor title in 2002 as well as a 4 x 100 m Commonwealth Games gold medal.

2003 saw another World indoors bronze despite being hampered by a hamstring injury but the following year he bettered this to take the gold, his first world individual title ahead of the fancied Shawn Crawford of the USA.

Gardener made the squad for the 2004 Summer Olympics where he competed in the 100 m and won the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay with Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis in a 38.07 s, their season's best and a narrow upset win over the United States.[1]

In March 2007, Gardener won his fourth European Indoor 60 m gold after fears that he may have to miss defending his title as his wife, Nancy, was due to give birth.

Gardener's last professional race was a 4 x 100 m relay at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on 3 August 2007. His team failed to finish this race.

On 17 October 2013 it was announced that Gardener would take part in the 100m Sprint for Faith organised by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Italian Sports Centre, as part of the Catholic Church's Year of Faith.[2]

Statistics
Updated 9 September 2008

Personal bests
Date Event Venue Time (seconds)
16 February 2000 50 metres Madrid, Spain 5.61
7 March 1999 60 metres Maebashi, Gunma, Japan 6.46
2 July 1999 100 metres Lausanne, Switzerland 9.98
11 July 1999 200 metres Ingolstadt, Germany 20.65
  • All information from IAAF Profile[3]

Major achievements

Gardener has also won four senior national titles indoors and two outdoors.

Bobsleigh

In 2008 Jason took part in a project to qualify four athletes from diverse sports in the British 2 Man Bobsleigh Championships, after just two weeks of training. Along with World Champion track cyclist Craig MacLean, Rugby World Cup winner Dan Luger and Commonwealth Decathlon champion Dean Macey, he attempted to complete two runs down the course at Cesana Pariol in Italy (site of the 2006 Winter Olympics) to gain qualification to the finals. Selected as pusher for driver Macey, he succeeded in finishing in sixth place overall, as well as being the highest placed novice pair. The story was filmed for the BBC and broadcast in February 2009.[4] Jason declined an offer to try and qualify for the next Winter Olympics in 2010.

Education

Gardner was educated at Moorlands Primary School, Beechen Cliff School and the City of Bath College. He later graduated from Bath Spa University.[5]

References
  1. Rob Bagchi (22 February 2012). "50 stunning Olympic moments No15: Great Britain's 2004 relay victory". The Guardian.
  2. 100 metre sprint for faith
  3. "Gardener, Jason biography". IAAF. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  4. Macey eyes bobsleigh at Olympics. BBC (5 February 2009).
  5. "My best teacher: Jason Gardener". Times Educational Supplement magazine. 23 July 2004. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
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