Yvonne Danson

Who is Yvonne Danson?

Yvonne Margaret Danson is a former road running athlete. She represented England at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, winning the bronze medal in the women's marathon.

After the 1994 Commonwealth Games, Danson took up Singapore citizenship in order to represent Singapore in international competitions. At the 1995 Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, she was the favourite to win the gold medal in the marathon and entered the stadium in first place. However she mistakenly believed that she had to complete one lap of the stadium in order to finish the race, and stopped after doing so. In fact she was required to complete two laps, but by the time she realised this and started running again, Ruwiyati of Indonesia was already part way through her second lap leaving Danson to cross the finish line in second place and claim the silver medal. Her time of 2 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds remains the Singapore national record. She also set a Singapore national record of 36 minutes 27.39 seconds in the 10,000 metres at Chiang Mai to win the bronze medal.

Danson represented Singapore at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, finishing in 38th place in a field of 86 runners.