Jana Rawlinson

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Women's athletics
Medal record
Jana Rawlinson
World Championships
Gold	2003 Paris	400 m hurdles
Gold	2007 Osaka	400 m hurdles

Jana Rawlinson (born November 9, 1982 in Sydney as Jana Pittman) is an Australian athlete who specialises in the 200 m and 400 m hurdles events. She won gold in the 400m hurdles in the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the 2003 World Championships and in the 2007 World Championships. She was also a member of Australia's gold medal-winning 4x400 m relay teams: at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 with Tamsyn Lewis, Cathy Freeman and Lauren Hewitt and in 2006 at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games with Tamsyn Lewis, Caitlin Willis and Rosemary Hayward. Rawlinson, who competed until April 2006 under her maiden name Pittman, won the 400 m hurdles at the 1999 World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz and became treble champion in 200 m, 400 m and 400 m hurdles at the national championships of that year. In 2000, she became the first woman ever to win the 400 m flat and hurdles double at any IAAF or IOC championships - in this case, the 2000 World Junior Championships in Santiago (Chile). In 2000, she became the first woman ever to win the 400 m flat and hurdles double at any IAAF or IOC championships - in this case, the 2000 World Junior Championships in Chile. Jana Pittman used to and attend Matthew Pearce Primary School and is now an alumni of Mount Saint Benedict in Western Sydney .

1 Knee injury
2 Negative public image
3 2006 Commonwealth Games
- 3.1 4 x 400 m Relay
- 3.2 400 m Hurdles
4 Marriage to Chris Rawlinson
5 External links

Knee injury

Just before the Athens Olympics, Jana Pittman tore her cartilage in her right knee during a warm-up for a track meet in Zurich. Pittman was favourite to win the 400 m hurdles event. After undergoing surgery in London only one week before the start of the games, she ran 5th in the Final. 3.

Negative public image

On 10 March 2006, quoted in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, she announced her intention to leave Australia, possibly for the UK, after the negative publicity surrounding her knee and her disagreement with fellow athlete Tamsyn Lewis: "Since Athens, my image is all about drama and I hate it." Jana said there had been a "mixed" response from the Australian public since the media dubbed their rivalry a "catfight" and a "bitchfight". Jana Pittman related that when she had been walking down the street a week earlier, a group of men in a car yelled out, "We love you, Tamsyn, we hate you, Pitts". "I didn't create that", the 400 m hurdler was quoted as saying. "I didn't want that". She also referenced the current edition of Ralph magazine at the time, in which Lewis posed in a bikini and which carried the tag line on the cover, "It's alright Tam, we don't like Jana Pittman either". In the buildup to her races at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Jana Pittman was widely reported as being nervous about the possible crowd reaction in the wake of the negative publicity detailed above. However, the ovation of the home crowd was loud and long, both before and after the 400 m hurdles Final, and in interviews afterwards Pittman expressed her feelings of relief. The crowd response was strikingly different at a nightclub hosting post-games celebrations, where after an introduction she was booed off stage 4.

2006 Commonwealth Games

At the Melbourne Commonwealth Games Jana Pittman successfully defended her two Commonwealth titles.

4 x 400 m Relay

As at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Jana Pittman was a member of Australia's gold medal-winning 4 x 400 m relay team (with Lewis, Caitlin Willis and Rosemary Hayward). However, the 2006 Aussie team was awarded the gold medal after the disqualification of the England team for a baton-change violation 5. She later wrote a letter of apology to the English team and offered her gold medal to them. Jana Pittman blamed the disqualification of England on Lewis who, alongside Pittman, went up to the officials after the race to point out the violation of Englishwoman Natasha Danvers-Smith of taking an incorrect position on the starting leg. 6. According to the ABC Sports Desk 7, the officials were moving to disqualify England anyway. England head coach, Brad McStravick, in an interview with the ABC TV Program Offsiders, questioned Jana's motivation for writing the letter: "I know she is going to spend, well, at least half the year in England and I think some of the girls wondered whether it was just to try and make peace, so that she wouldn't face any animosity once she was living and training in England," he said 8.

400 m Hurdles

Jana Pittman won the 400m hurdles title with a new Games Record time of 53.82 seconds. This was her first major championship in the event since her 2004 knee injury and subsequent stress fractures in her back.

Marriage to Chris Rawlinson

On 31 March 2006, Jana Pittman married Chris Rawlinson at Morningstar Estate on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria and became Jana Rawlinson. Chris Rawlinson, also a specialist 400 m hurdler, has been Jana's personal coach since 2004. As in the case of the wedding of fellow Australian athlete Lleyton Hewitt, the wedding photographs were exclusively sold to Australian women's magazine, Women's Weekly 7. On 14 December 2006 Jana Rawlinson gave birth to the couple's first child, son Cornelis Levi. She has announced that she will retire to concentrate on family life after the Beijing Olympics.