Janet Boyle

{{Infobox sportsperson

| name = Janet Boyle

| image =

| caption =

| nationality = Northern Irish

| sport = Athletics

| event = long distance

| club = Belfast Ladies

| birth_date = 25 July 1963

| birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland

| death_date =

| death_place =

| height =178 cm

| weight =58 kg

| pb =

| medaltemplates=

{{MedalCountry|{{NIR}}}}

}}

Janet Margaret Boyle (born 25 July 1963){{Cite web |title=Olympedia – Janet Boyle |url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/68616 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=www.olympedia.org}} is a former high jumper from Northern Ireland. She represented Great Britain & Northern Ireland at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. At the Commonwealth Games, she won a bronze medal in Edinburgh 1986 and a silver medal in Auckland 1990.

Biography

Boyle was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and first came to prominence in 1983, finishing second at the UK Championships with 1.80 metres and third behind Gillian Evans at the 1983 WAAA Championships with a jump of 1.85 m.{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004941/19830731/479/0027 |title=Athletics |work=Sunday Express |date=31 July 1983 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |access-date=16 March 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nuts.org.uk/Champs/AAA/index.htm |title=AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists |website=National Union of Track Statisticians |access-date=16 March 2025}}{{cite web|url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/waaa.htm |title=AAA Championships (women) |website=GBR Athletics |access-date=16 March 2025 }}

Boyle won her first UK title in 1985 with a clearance of 1.86m. In 1986, she earned selection for both the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships. At the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, representing Northern Ireland in a high quality competition, she won the bronze medal with a personal best of 1.90m. Northern Ireland won two medals, as her teammate Sharon McPeake won the silver medal, also clearing 1.90m. At the Europeans in Stuttgart, she was eliminated in the qualifying round with a best of 1.83m. She ended the season by improving her PB at a meeting at the Crystal Palace in September, clearing 1.91m.

In 1987, Boyle won the AAAs indoor title with a jump of 1.90m and went on to finish sixth at the European Indoor Championships in Lievin, with 1.91m. This would remain her best ever indoor clearance. Outdoors, she placed second to Diana Davies at the UK Championships. No female high jumper from the UK was selected for that years World Championships in Rome.

Boyle reached her peak in 1988. She won at the 1988 AAA Championships, also incorporating the UK Olympic trials, equalling her PB of 1.91m. Then at the Seoul Olympics she achieved her lifetime best with 1.92m in the qualifying round, to reach the Olympic final. In the final, she cleared 1.90m to finish 12th.{{Cite web|url=http://www.todor66.com/olim/1988/Athletics/Women_High_Jump.html|title=Women High Jump Olympic Games 1988 Seoul (KOR) - Friday 30.09|website=Todor66.com}} Diana Davies also reached the final, finishing equal eighth, making 1988 the last time (as of 2014) that two women from the UK reached the Olympic high jump final.{{Cite web|url=http://www.todor66.com/athletics/world/Women_High_Jump.html|title=Women Athletics High Jump Olympic Games and World Championships History|website=Todor66.com}}

Boyle continued as one of the UK's leading jumpers for the next four years. In 1989, she won her second UK title with a 1.83m clearance. In 1990, at her second Commonwealth Games in Auckland, she won the silver medal with 1.88m, losing the gold medal in a jump off with New Zealand's Tania Murray. In 1991, she was third at the UK Championships and second at the AAAs Championships, behind Debbie Marti. She competed at the 1992 AAAs Championships, which were also the Olympic trials, but failed to earn selection for the Barcelona Olympics.

As of 2015, Boyle's best of 1.92m from Seoul in 1988, ranks her 11th on the UK all-time list and remains the Northern Irish record.{{Cite web |url=http://www.powerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=HJ&agegroup=ALL&sex=W&alltime=y |title=Ranking List |access-date=27 November 2013 |archive-date=20 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220175557/http://www.powerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=HJ&agegroup=All&sex=W&alltime=y |url-status=dead }}

Achievements

AAAs National Champion (1988)
UK National Champion (1985, 1989)
AAAs National Indoor Champion (1987)
Northern Irish Champion (1985, 1988)

{{AchievementTable}}
colspan="6"\|Representing {{GBR2}} / {{NIR}}
rowspan=2\|1986 \|Commonwealth Games \|Edinburgh, United Kingdom \|bgcolor="cc9966"\| 3rd \|1.90 m
European Championships \|Stuttgart, West Germany \|19th (q) \|1.83 m
rowspan=2\|1987 \|European Indoor Championships \|Lievin, France \|6th \|1.91 m
European Cup \|Prague, Czechoslovakia \|7th \|1.85 m
1988 \|Olympic Games \|Seoul, South Korea \|12th \|1.90 m (1.92)
1990 \|Commonwealth Games \|Auckland, New Zealand \|bgcolor="silver"\| 2nd \|1.88 m

colspan="6"|Representing {{GBR2}} / {{NIR}}

rowspan=2|1986

|Commonwealth Games

|Edinburgh, United Kingdom

|bgcolor="cc9966"| 3rd

|1.90 m

European Championships

|Stuttgart, West Germany

|19th (q)

|1.83 m

rowspan=2|1987

|European Indoor Championships