 Armitage at the 1956 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 March 1933 Colombo, British Ceylon |
| Height | 171 cm (5 ft 7 in) |
| Weight | 64 kg (141 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | Sprint |
| Club | Longwood Harriers, Huddersfield |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 100 m – 11.6 (1956) 200 – 23.79y (1958)[1][2] |
Medal record | |
Heather Joy Armitage (later Young, then McClelland; born 17 March 1933) is a British retired sprinter and British record holder for the 100 yards.[3]
Armitage won her first major title representing Yorkshire in the all England schools 100 yards in 1951 aged 18.[4] 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.[1] In 1958, she won three medals at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff[1] 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.[5]
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 hold the official British Record for the 100 yards.[3]
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 has a daughter, Alison.
She retired from competitions in 1960 and devoted herself to teaching, mostly on religious topics.[6]
