Ashia Hansen

Ashia Hansen, born as Ashia Nana Koramdina ( born December 5, 1971 in Evansville, Indiana, United States) is a former British athlete. At a height of 1.70 m her competition weight was 63 kg.

Hansen was adopted three months after the birth of a British woman and her Ghanaian husband. She grew up the first six years of her life in Ghana before her parents settled in London. Since 1994 she is part of the British athletics team, on Commonwealth Games it occurs for England. It improved the British record in the triple jump and placed ten times 1998 indoor world record.

After Ashia Hansen had failed at the European Championships in 1994 and at the 1995 World Championships in each of the qualification, she succeeded in 1996, the breakthrough to world leaders. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta, she was with 14,49 m Fifth, but moved after the disqualification of the Bulgarian Iwa Prandschewa still a place forward.

In the hall 1997 World Championships she won with 14.70 m in second place behind the Russian Inna Lassowskaja. In the same year she was with 14,49 m fifth at the world championships.

Ashia Hansen won in 1998 at the European Indoor Championships with 15.16 meters and forty centimeters ahead of the reigning world champion Sarka Kašpárková from the Czech Republic. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games she won with 14.32 m. Another gold medal she won at the World Indoor Championships in 1999, when she won with 15.02 m in front Prandschewa and Kašpárková. At the World Championships in 1999 she tried a safety jump, but the place was only 12 with 13.39 m in the final after two invalid jumps.

According to an eleventh place finish at the 2000 Olympics and a seventh place finish at the 2001 World Championships, she returned again in 2002 the world's top back. With 14.71 meters she finished second at the European Indoor Championships behind the Bulgarian Teresa Marinowa. It followed the victory at the 2002 Commonwealth Games with 14.86 m with four centimeters ahead of Françoise Mbango Etone from Cameroon. At the European Championships in 2002 she jumped 15.00 meters ( with too much tailwind ) and won the first British vaulter since 1954 a European title in the open.

At the World Indoor Championships in 2003 Ashia Hansen succeeded another title. With 15,01 m, she won before Françoise Mbango Etone with 14,87 m.

In 2003 she was honored with the title MBE.

Personal best

• Long Jump - 6.47 m ( 1996)
• Triple Jump - 15.15 m ( 1997) in the hall: 15.16 m ( 1998)