Monique Williams (athlete)

For the Australian actress, see Monique Williams.

Monique Williams (born 23 September 1985) is a New Zealand sprinter from Tokoroa.

Williams became the first New Zealand female sprinter to win a gold medal at a major world championship event when she won the 200 m at the World University Games (Universiade) in Belgrade during 2009.

In doing so she became only the second Kiwi sprinter to win gold at a world event after Don Jowett won the 220 yards at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

Williams has seen a notable rise in prominence on the world athletics stage since 2008 and was selected as the flag Bearer for NZ at the 2009 Universiade.

During her development years, in 2006 she was awarded a New Zealand Prime Ministers Scholarship from Helen Clark, recognising Williams as an emerging and talented New Zealander. She has steadily and progressively continued to live up to that perception with notable performance improvements along the way. Her successes in her rise to prominence on the international stage have seen Williams capture three consecutive NZ national treble titles at 100, 200 and 400 m in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Although widely reported as a shy but confident athlete she is the up and coming face of Oceania’s female spinters. Global sportswear giants adidas are amongst her sponsors.^[1]

Williams holds the New Zealand national record for 200 m (22.90s) which she set at the IAAF 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, eclipsing her previous record of 22.98 in February that year and 22.96 in the opening heats in Berlin. The New Zealand national record had stood for almost 31 years before it was first broken by Williams.

A personal best of 11.64 for 100 m set in early 2009 offers both Willams and her coach (father Chris) the challenge in the time ahead to decide which event to concentrate on in the lead up to London 2012, and where she is also an accomplished 400 m sprinter.

Reflecting an outstanding year for the athlete, at the end of 2009 Williams was named Auckland’s North Shore Sports Personality of the Year and was short-listed for New Zealand’s elite sportspersons Halberg awards for the first time.

Respected by her fellow athletes she graduated from Waikato University with a Bachelor of Education in Primary School Teaching and is now a qualified primary school teacher, although much of her time is now spent as a professional athlete. She is carded athlete and is funded by Athletics New Zealand's SPARC High Performance Program for elite athletes. She has already qualified to represent New Zealand at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
2009	World Student Games	Belgrade, Serbia	1st	200 m

Personal bests

Distance	Time	Place	Date
100 m	11.64	Wellington, New Zealand	27 March 2009
200 m	22.90 NR	Berlin, Germany	20 August 2009
400 m	51.88	Brisbane, Australia	20 March 2009
800 m	2:09.09	Debrecen, Hungary	12 July 2010

References

1. ^ waikato times 06 06 09

External links

• IAAF profile for Monique Williams (athlete)

Persondata
Name	Williams, Monique
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 September 1985
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death