Colin Jackson

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This article is about the Welsh athlete. For other people called Colin Jackson see Colin Jackson (disambiguation)

Colin Jackson
Colin Jackson at Sport Relief 2006 in London
Born	Colin Ray Jackson 18th February 1967 Cardiff, Wales, UK

Medal record
Men's athletics
Olympic Games
Silver	1988 Seoul	110 m hurdles
World Championships
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	110 m hurdles
Gold	1999 Seville	110 m hurdles
Silver	1993 Stuttgart	4x100 m relay
Silver	1997 Athens	110 m hurdles
Bronze	1987 Rome	110 m hurdles
European Championships
Gold	1990 Split	110 m hurdles
Gold	1994 Helsinki	110 m hurdles
Gold	1998 Budapest	110 m hurdles
Gold	2002 Munich	110 m hurdles
Commonwealth Games
Gold	1990 Auckland	110 m hurdles
Gold	1994 Victoria	110 m hurdles

Colin Ray Jackson CBE (born February 18, 1967 in Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh sprint and hurdling athlete of Jamaican, Maroon and Scottish ancestry, who now works as a sports commentator for athletics and television presenter predominantly for the BBC.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Performance 2 Achievements 3 References 4 Bibliography 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Jackson attended Llanedeyrn High School playing football and cricket for the county and rugby union and basketball for his school.

Under coach and close friend Malcolm Rodger Arnold he started out as a promising decathlete before switching to high hurdles. He set a new World Record on 110 metres hurdles the 20 August 1993 in Stuttgart, Germany with 12.91s. The record was equaled by Liu Xiang in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and finally beaten by the same man 11 July 2006 at the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne with a time of 12.88s. However, Jackson remains sole holder of the indoor world record at the 60 metre hurdles with a time of 7.30 seconds set in Sindelfingen, Germany on March 6, 1994.

Jackson was a master of the "dip" - the skill of leaning forward at the end of a race to advance the position of the shoulders and improve times (and potentially positions). He was also renowned for being a particularly fast starter, which led to a great deal of success in 60m events.

He was the subject of controversy in 1998 when he decided to run for cash in Tokyo, Japan, rather than compete in the Commonwealth Games for Wales.

Already the holder of the MBE that he received in 1990 for his services to athletics, in 1992 he was appointed CBE.

The English reggae band Aswad name-checked him on their hit song Shine: Him a floating like a butterfly, the hurdling man - Yes, me-a-chat about Colin Jackson.

Since ending his professional career Jackson has been a coach, in athletics and other areas. He coached the swimmer Mark Foster until Foster's retirement in April 2006. Since late 2006, he has coached two of Great Britain's top Olympic prospects, 400m runner Tim Benjamin and 400m hurdler Rhys Williams. He was also one of the members of the successful London 2012 Olympic bid team.

In 2005 he appeared as one of the celebrity contestants on the BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing and, after a neck-and-neck final, came second with his dance partner Erin Boag, just losing out to cricketer Darren Gough. In 2006 Jackson became the first competitor who hadn't won the main series to win the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special.

[edit] Performance

Week #	Dance	Judges' score
		Craig Revel Horwood	Arlene Phillips	Len Goodman	Bruno Tonioli	Total
1	Cha-Cha-Cha	8	8	8	8	32
2	Quickstep	9	9	9	9	36
3	Tango	7	5	7	7	26
4	Paso Doble	8	7	8	8	31
5	Samba	8	8	8	8	32
6	Foxtrot	8	8	8	8	32
7	Viennese Waltz	9	9	8	8	34
8	Rumba American Smooth	9 9	9 10	9 9	9 9	36 37
9	Waltz Jive	9 7	9 7	10 8	9 8	37 30
10	Quickstep Rumba	9 9	10 9	10 9	10 9	39 36
Christmas Special 2005	Cha-Cha-Cha	9	8	9	9	35
Christmas Special 2006	Quickstep	10	10	10	10	40

Colin Jackson took part in an episode of the BBC TV genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?,^[1] broadcast in the UK on 20th September 2006. Of Jamaican descent, genetic tests showed his ancestry to be 55% African, 7% Native American (believed to be from Jamaican Maroon Ancestry on his father's side), and 38% European. His mother was born in Panama, the daughter of Richard Augustus Packer and Gladys McGowan Campbell. Gladys Campbell was from Jamaica, the daughter of a Scottish man Duncan Campbell and his housemaid Albertina Wallace ^[2].

He is also the brother of actress Suzanne Packer who plays Tess Bateman in the BBC One hospital drama Casualty.

In a March 2008 interivew with The Voice newspaper, Jackson refuted claims that he is gay, adding that he believed the stigma surrounding gay athletes to be a thing of the past^[3].

[edit] Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Event (all hurdles)	Result	Notes
1986	Commonwealth Games	Edinburgh, Scotland	110 m	2nd
1987	World Championships	Rome, Italy	110 m	3rd
	European Indoor Championships	Liévin, France	60 m	2nd
	European Cup	Prague, Czechoslovakia	110 m	2nd
1988	Summer Olympics	Seoul, South Korea	110 m	2nd
1989	IAAF World Cup	Barcelona, Spain	110 m	2nd
	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	60 m	2nd
	European Indoor Championships	The Hague, Netherlands	60 m	1st
	European Cup	Gateshead, England	110 m	1st
1990	Commonwealth Games	Auckland, New Zealand	110 m	1st	Games Record: 13.08s
	European Championships	Split, Yugoslavia	110 m	1st	Championship Record: 13.18s
1991	European Cup	Frankfurt am Main, Germany	110 m	1st	Cup Record: 13.31s
1992	Summer Olympics	Barcelona, Spain	110 m	7th
1993	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	110 m	1st	World Record: 12.91s
	World Indoor Championships	Toronto, Canada	60 m	2nd
	European Cup	Rome, Italy	110 m	1st	Cup Record: 13.10s
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, Canada	110 m	1st	Equalled Games Record: 13.08s
	Goodwill Games	Saint Petersburg, Russia	110 m	1st
	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	110 m	1st	Championship Record: 13.08s
	European Indoor Championships	Paris, France	60 m	1st	Championship Record: 6.49s
			60 m	1st	Championship Record: 7.41s
		Sindelfingen, Germany	60 m	1st	World Record: 7.30s
1996	European Cup	Madrid, Spain	110 m	2nd
1997	World Championships	Athens, Greece	110 m	2nd
	World Indoor Championships	Paris, France	60 m	2nd
	European Cup	Munich, Germany	110 m	2nd
1998	European Championships	Budapest, Hungary	110 m	1st	Championship Record: 13.02s
	IAAF World Cup	Johannesburg, South Africa	110 m	2nd
	European Cup	St. Petersburg, Russia	110 m	1st
1999	World Championships	Seville, Spain	110 m	1st
	World Indoor Championships	Maebashi, Japan	60 m	1st	Championship Record: 7.38s
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, England	110 m	2nd
	European Championships	Munich, Germany	110 m	1st
	European Indoor Championships	Vienna, Austria	60 m	1st	Championship Record: 7.40s
	European Cup	Annecy, France	110 m	1st

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Colin Jackson: The Autobiography (BBC Books, 2003)

[edit] External links

• Colin Jackson - athlete from Cardiff, BBC
• Colin Jackson on Who Do You Think You Are? (programme page)

Records
Preceded by Roger Kingdom	Men's 110 m Hurdles World Record Holder August 20, 1993 – August 27, 2004	Succeeded by Liu Xiang
Awards
Preceded by Ian Woosnam	BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 1988	Succeeded by Stephen Dodd
Preceded by Tanni Grey	BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 1993	Succeeded by Steve Robinson
Preceded by Linford Christie	Men's European Athlete of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Jonathan Edwards
Preceded by Iwan Thomas	BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 1999	Succeeded by Tanni Grey-Thompson
Sporting positions
Preceded by Roger Kingdom	Men's 110 m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1990	Succeeded by Tony Dees
Preceded by Tony Dees	Men's 110 m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1992 — 1994	Succeeded by Allen Johnson