News25 Oct 2005


Olympic champion Joanna Hayes donates spikes to the IAAF

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Olympic champion Joanna Hayes' spikes (© IAAF)

Olympic champion Joanna Hayes has donated a pair of spikes belonging to her 2004 Olympic Games kit to the IAAF humanitarian project Athletics for a Better World.

A former 400m hurdler, Hayes was a superb winner of the 100m Hurdles final at last year’s Athens Olympic Games where she set a new Olympic record of 12.37. She also became the sixth fastest sprint hurdler of all-time.

Following a superb 2004 season in which she also won the IAAF World Athletics Final, Hayes won the Jesse Owens award together with compatriot Justin Gatlin.

"To be the winner of the Jesse Owens award is an honour beyond words," Hayes said. "Receiving an award with his named attached to it is obviously prestigious and I am extremely honoured to have my name associated with his."

Established in 1981, the Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade, presented annually to the outstanding U.S. male and female track and field performers, who have been selected in a ballot of members of the U.S. track & field media.

At the Helsinki World Championships, Hayes badly hit the ninth hurdle and collapsed at the last obstacle as she seemed poised to sprint for the World title.

Based in Los Angeles the 28-year-old is also an active member of the humanitarian association headed by Jackie Joyner-Kersee. In 2001 a serious hamstring injury kept her out of the circuit for two years, a time during which she worked at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center teaching kids to be positive in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Hayes’ autographed spikes will be auctioned at the end of the year and all profits donated to the United Nations Associations: FAO, UNICEF and WFP.
 

 

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