Melinda Gainsford-Taylor

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Melinda Gainsford-Taylor medal table

Sprinter

AustraliaAustralia Australia
World championships
bronze 1995 Gothenburg 4 × 400 m
Indoor world championships
gold 1995 Barcelona 200 m
silver 1993 Toronto 200 m
Commonwealth Games
silver 1994 Victoria 4 × 100 m
bronze 1994 Victoria 200 m

Melinda Maree Gainsford-Taylor (born October 1, 1971 in Narromine ) is a former Australian athlete who was internationally successful as a sprinter in the 1990s .

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , she finished sixth with the Australian 4 x 100 meter relay . In the 200-meter run she reached the semi-finals, in the 100-meter run the quarter-finals. The 13-time Australian champion won her first international medal in 1993 at the World Indoor Championships in Toronto . With a time of 22.73 s, she finished second in the 200-meter run behind the Russian Irina Priwalowa . Over the same distance, Gainsford-Taylor won the bronze medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. There she also won the silver medal with the Australian 4 x 100 meter relay.

In 1995 Gainsford-Taylor won the title in the 200-meter run at the World Indoor Championships in Barcelona in an oceanic indoor record time of 22.64 s . In the same year, she won the bronze medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay at the World Championships in Gothenburg together with Lee Naylor , Renée Poetschka and Cathy Freeman . Over 100 and 200 meters, Gainsford-Taylor reached the semi-finals.

At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , she reached the semi-finals again in the 200-meter run. With the 4 x 400 meter relay, she was eliminated in the preliminary round. The following year she made it into the finals at the World Championships in Athens over 200 meters and finished in seventh place. In 1998, over the same distance, she missed a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur when she fell while in the lead just before the finish line.

At the end of her international career, she started at the Olympic Games 2000 in her home country in Sydney in four disciplines. While she missed the finals in the 100-meter run and with the 4-by-100-meter relay, she finished fifth in the 200-meter run and with the 4-by-400-meter relay in Oceania record time of 3 : 23.81 min fourth place.

Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is 1.72 m tall and had a competition weight of 67 kg. She is married and has two kids. The swimmer and Olympic medalist Josh Watson is her cousin.

Top performances

2000 Olympic Games, Gainsford second from right
  • Open air:
    • 100 m: 11.12 s (AR), July 31, 1994, Sestriere
    • 200 m: 22.23 s (AR), July 13, 1997, Stuttgart
    • 400 m: 51.73 s, July 22nd 2000, Brisbane
  • Hall:
    • 60 m: 7.36 s, March 12, 1993, Toronto
    • 200 m: 22.64 s (AR), March 10, 1995, Barcelona

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