Ashia Hansen MBE – Triple Jump

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Ashia switched from long jump to triple jump in 1992 and has never looked back. She has now become one of the world’s greatest Triple Jumpers and without a doubt Britain’s greatest ever-female jumper having set twenty British records.

Ashia’s first international achievement was her victory in the European Cup in Lille in 1995. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 she narrowly missed out on a medal, and was placed fourth.

In 1997 Ashia won her first major medal, silver at the World Indoor Championships in Paris. Her progress during 1997 elevated her into the World’s elite and she was vying with Sarka Kasparkova for the World number 1 spot. She aggravated a back injury during the 1997 World Championship, which prevented her from gaining a medal. However, she recovered to win the annual IAAF Grand Prix final with a jump of 15.15m, the fifth best of all time.

Her 1998 season started with her retaining her British Indoor Title. However, she saved her best performance to date, by jumping a World Indoor Record at the European Championships with a jump of 15.16meters. A foot injury prevented Ashia from competing for most of the Outdoor season, but she rehabilitated sufficiently to win her second major title of the year at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpar in September.

Ashia started the 1999 Indoor Season where her 1998 season finished, a fine victory at the BUPA Indoor Games against her arch rivals gave her the confidence to dominate the World Indoor Championships in March (Japan) where, with a jump of 15.02m, she claimed her first World Indoor title.

Ashia had a slow start to the outdoor season having spent some time resting after a minor operation to her ankle. Following her indoor success, Ashia had to fight to regain her top form as witnessed in Japan. Lausanne proved to be just the place as Ashia jumped 14.65m to take first place. The World Championships in Seville proved to be a learning process for the Indoor Champion. Entering the competition in fine form Ashia qualified through to the finals but didn’t see herself on the medal rostrum in Seville. However, like a true professional, she carried her season through, winning meets in Glasgow and at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Munich. Ashia leapt to victory in Munich with jump of 14.98m, the second longest jump outdoors of her career.

As the UK’s leading female Athlete, Ashia has the confidence and ability to add to her impressive array of titles, however a year of frustration and misdiagnosed injury in 2000 destroyed her Olympic dream. She jumped 13.44m in the final and came a disappointing 11^th place. Ashia underwent an operation on her foot at the beginning of 2001 and made a spectacular recovery to make the 2001 World Championship team.

2002 started well with a victory in her first indoor meeting in Germany and silver at the European Indoor Championships (Vienna) and went into the outdoor season now totally focused on the European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Ashia had a spectacular Commonwealth Games leading the competition until the final round when Françoise Mbango from Cameroon took the lead with a jump of 14.82m. With her final jump to go Ashia responded like a true champion, with a season’s best jump of 14.86m to retain her Commonwealth title. The European Championships in Munich almost ran to the same script as the Commonwealths with Ashia snatching the Gold from the finish athlete, Heli Koivula, with her final jump and another season’s best of 15 metres.

Despite suffering from an injury Ashia reinforced her position as World number one with some fantastic results during the 2003 Indoor season. Ashia started the season in front of her home crowd at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand prix in Birmingham. She jumped 14.71m, which not only placed her in 1^st, but also took her to the top of the World Rankings.

With another nail-biting finish at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ashia’s opening jump of 14.77m took her into the lead, but arch rival Francoise Mbango then snatched the lead with a jump of 14.88m. However, Ashia saved her best till last and leapt to victory with an outstanding 15.01m, retaining her title of World Indoor Champion and delighting her home crowd.

Ashia had to withdraw from the 2003 World Championships in Paris to focus on recovering from surgery on her injured heel. In 2004, Ashia competed once indoors, winning the Norwich Union Birmingham Grand Prix with her last jump of 14.47m. She decided not to defend her World Indoor title but instead focused all her energy on winning Gold at the Olympics in Athens. Due to a freak accident at the Europan Cup in June, Ashia’s Olympic dreams in Athens were crushed as she had to undergo surgery to her left knee.

Ashia is now back into a full training regime and her ambition remains to win an Olympic Games, now in Beijing. Ashia lives in Birmingham and is coached by Aston Moore. She is sponsored by Reebok and models for the underwear company Triumph. Additionally, as an ambassador of the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships Ashia turned her quick sprint down the triple jump runway to a gorgeous strut down the catwalk at the 2006 ‘Style Birmingham’ fashion.

Off the track Ashia is constantly in demand and previously took part in the 1999/2000 BBC Sports Advertising Campaign (aired BBC1 & BBC2). Publication appearances include titles such as Health & Fitness, Hotline, BA Business Life magazine David Lloyd Lifestyle magazine and features in many of the weekend colour supplements including, ‘the times magazine’, ‘Saturday’ by the Express & ‘Style’ section in The Sunday Times. Television includes mystery guest & panellist on ‘Question of Sport’, “They Think It’s All Over”, Linford’s Record Breakers, BBC’s 110% sports show (the half hour interview) & ‘a day in the life’ short film with Central TV to name a few.

Ashia was awarded an MBE in 2003 for her outstanding contribution to sport.

In the lead up to the 2007 indoor season Ashia struggled with injury. Although she contested the pit in an attempt to qualify for the European Championship, unfortunately the indoor programme did not allow enough time for her to recover.

Ashia is now back to full training and is driven by her Olympic dream with Beijing just around the corner.

February 2008