Sheila Lerwill
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
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| Nationality | British (English) | |||||||||||
| Born | 16 August 1928 London, England | |||||||||||
| Height | 171 cm (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||
| Weight | 63 kg (139 lb) | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||
| Event | high jump | |||||||||||
| Club | Spartan Ladies | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Sheila W. Lerwill née Alexander (born 16 August 1928) is a British athlete who competed mainly in the high jump and competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics.[1]
Biography
[edit]Born in London and originating from Streatham, Alexander finished third behind Gladys Young in the high jump event at the 1947 WAAA Championships.[2][3][4][5]
She played netball for England and Surrey.[6] She lived on Glenister Park Road.[7]
In 1950 she was trained by George Pallett[8] and took the British record on 5 August 1950 at 5 ft 6.5.[9] She married Michael H. M. Lerwill, from Westerham, on Saturday 31 March 1951 at Holy Redeemer Church[10][11] in Wandsworth.[12][13]
Lerwill broke the world record for women's high jump on 7 July 1951 in London with a jump of 1.72 metres, beating the previous record of 1.71 metres set by Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands on 30 May 1943 in Amsterdam. (The record was broken on 22 May 1954 by Aleksandra Chudina of the USSR in Kiev with a jump of 1.73 metres).[14]
She competed for Great Britain in the high jump at the 1952 Summer Olympics, held in Helsinki, Finland, where she won the silver medal with a jump of 1.65 metres. It was Britain's best athletics medal at the games.
References
[edit]- ^ "Biographical Information". Olympedia. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
- ^ "Women's A.A.A. Championships". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 2 August 1947. Retrieved 21 December 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Women's A.A.A. Title Change". Star Green 'un. 2 August 1947. Retrieved 21 December 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
- ^ "AAA Championships (women)". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
- ^ Birmingham Daily Post Saturday 2 June 1951, page 6
- ^ Norwood News Friday 1 September 1950, page 5
- ^ Manchester Evening News Thursday 7 December 1950, page 4
- ^ Daily Mirror Thursday 8 February 1951, page 10
- ^ Streatham News Friday 6 April 1951, page 3
- ^ South Wales Echo Saturday 19 August 1950, page 4
- ^ "Marriage registration". FreeBMD. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
- ^ "Women's Titles". The Observer. 8 July 1951. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
- ^ "World Records for High Jump (Women)". World Records. Cleave Books. Retrieved 19 February 2008.
External links
[edit]
European Athletics Championships champions in women's high jump | |
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| National | |
  | This article about an Olympic medallist in athletics of the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1928 births
- Living people
- British female high jumpers
- English female high jumpers
- Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Commonwealth Games competitors for England
- People from Streatham
- Athletes from the London Borough of Lambeth
- World record setters in athletics (track and field)
- 20th-century English sportswomen
- British athletics Olympic medallist stubs