Shelley Holroyd

Shelley Holroyd
Personal information
Full name	Shelley Holroyd
Nationality	British
Born	17 May 1973 (age 51); Salford, England
Sport
Country	England, UK
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	; Javelin
Club	Sale Harriers
Coached by	William Nicholls (1986-1993), ; Fatima Whitbread (1993-1995)
Retired	2006 due to injury
Now coaching	Hayley Thomas
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	23rd
World finals	16th 1993 World Championships
Regional finals	1st
National finals	1st
Highest world ranking	4th
Personal best(s)	Official Javelin: 60.12m ; (unofficial 65.40 & Standing throw 52m)

Shelley Holroyd (born 17 May 1973 in Salford, Lancashire, England) is a British javelin thrower.

Shelley Holroyd is the 6th British Javelin Thrower to throw over 60m (1993) and the first thrower to reach an Olympic Games since Tessa Sanderson. At the age of 23 Shelley had already competed in every major championship. She started throwing at the age of 12 and at 13 threw 37m58cm to win the English Schools Championships. At the age of 16 Shelley threw 52m50 and became a senior international athlete. In 1992 Shelley broke the English Schools record with 56m50 and it is still the longest throw of all time in the history of the English Schools Female Javelin. Later that year Holroyd was picked for the GB Junior team and subsequently came 4th at the World Junior Championships (1992) and was ranked Britains number 1 Thrower. In 1993 Holroyd threw 60m10cm to win the World Championship Trials and qualified for the World Championships, Stuttgart.

In March 1995 Holroyd was involved in a car accident that was deemed to be the end of her throwing career but she overcame her injuries to start training in July the same year. In December Holroyd was involved in a freak training accident and broke her right elbow. Once again the injury was threatening her career. February 1996 saw Holroyd come back from her injury and in July 1996 she qualified for the 1996 Great Britain Olympic team.

At the 1997 World Championships in Athens Holroyd became ill during the competition after having an allergic reaction to an injection and had to pull out. It was another year plagued with injuries.

After a 17-year-long spell as an international athlete Shelley retired in 2006 due to injury and moved into coaching. She now coaches Youth Olympian (2003) & former under 17 British record holder Hayley Thomas (Javelin).

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing United Kingdom and England
1992	World Junior Championships	Seoul, South Korea	4th	57.08 m
1993	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	16th	57.66 m
1994	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	21st	51.26 m
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, Georgia, USA	27th	54.72 m

1989 European Junior Championships (Varaždin, Yugoslavia)
1991 European Junior Championships (Thessaloniki, Greece) 7th
1994 Commonwealth Games (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) Withdrew due to illness
1997 World Championships (Athens, Greece)
1998 Commonwealth Games (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) 5th
2006 Commonwealth Games (Melbourne, Australia) 10th

Domestic Championships

English Schools Champion 1986, 1991, 1992
North of England Champion 1991, 1992, 1993, 2005
UK Championships 1989 3rd, 1992 2nd, 1997 2nd
AAA's Champion 1993, 1994 2nd in 1996, 1998, 2005 3rd in 2000, 2004

References

Kubatko, Justin. "Shelley Holroyd Biography and Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 2010-01-24.

External links