Marlon Devonish

Devonish made his senior international debut at the 1996 European Indoor Championships in Stockholm, where he made the semi-finals and he improved over the next season and qualified for the British team for the 1997 World Championships, where he was a member of the bronze medal winning quartet, and this was consolidated with European and Commonwealth relay gold medals in 1998, as well as making the 100m finals at both events.

Devonish made the British team for the World Championships and Olympic Games in 1999 and 2000 respectively, but failed to reach the final of the 200m on both occasions but at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Marlon finished eighth in the 200m final.

Arguably, 2002 was the best season of his career. Having won the European Cup 200m in Annecy, Devonish won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in front of his home crowd in Manchester, setting his existing lifetime best of 20.29, which was followed by a bronze at the European Championships.

In the winter of 2003, Devonish won his third consecutive medal at a major championship. At the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, he won gold, clocking 20.62, which was just outside his indoor PB.

Devonish dropped down the rankings for the corresponding two seasons, failing to make the individual teams for the World Championships in Paris or the Olympic Games but in Athens, Devonish ran the third leg of the gold medal winning team, where the quartet narrowly held off their American counterparts in a nail biting contest. In the New Years’ honour list, Devonish was awarded an MBE.

After two solid summer campaigns in 2005 and 2006, Devonish had his best year to date over 100m in 2007, where the veteran was consistently one of the best sprinters in the world. Devonish was consistently in the top three throughout the entirety of the European tour and set his lifetime best of 10.06 in Lausanne. At the World Championships in 2006, Devonish attained his best ever finish of sixth in the 100m, as well as picking up another bronze medal in the 4x100m.

Illness meant that the 32-year-old was not in his greatest form in 2008, but he still won the European Cup and made the semi-finals at his third successive Olympic Games.

Marlon is a talented artist and his work is displayed on his website www.marlondevonish.co.uk.

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