Donald Sanford (athlete)

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Donald Blair-Sanford
Personal information
Full nameDonald Eugene Blair-Sanford
NicknameDBS
CitizenshipAmerican–Israeli
Born (1987-02-05) February 5, 1987 (age 37)
Los Angeles, California
Alma mater
Height1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
400m
; 45.04 seconds
Medal record
Representing Israel Israel
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Zürich 400 m
European Games
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Baku Mixed team
Representing Europe
Continental Cup
Silver medal – second place 2014 Marrakech 4 × 400 m relay
Updated on October 10, 2015.

Donald Eugene Blair-Sanford (born February 5, 1987) is an

400 metre dash
.

His personal record at 400 metres is 45.04 seconds. He represented Israel in the

Israeli record of 45.27 seconds. Competing for Israel at the 2015 European Games
, Sanford won with a time of 45.75.

Early life

Sanford was born, one of four children, in Inglewood in Los Angeles County, California, to Donald E. Sanford Jr. and Debra Blair, who had run track in high school.[2][3] He attended City Honors High School in Inglewood but competed for Morningside High School.[4] He won the 400m dash at the California Interscholastic Federation Division III Championships, and was a member of the National Honor Society.[5]

He competed for one season at Morgan State University, running a season-best time of 46.92 to place second at the IC4A Championships.[5]

Donald Sanford

He became an

NJCAA Outdoor Championship teams (in 2006 and 2007).[5]

He also studied at

All-American.[7]

Achievements

Sanford's club is Maccabi Tel Aviv, and he is coached by Lloyd Cowan.[1]

In 2012, Sanford represented Israel for the first time at a major sporting event, finishing 4th at the

European Athletic Championships, held in Helsinki, nine-hundredths of a second away from a medal at 45.91 seconds.[8]

A little over a month later, he ran in the 2012 Summer Olympics. His shoes were stolen from his bag just ahead of his qualifying heat, and he had to run in a teammate's shoes.[9][10] He finished fifth in a time of 45.71 seconds, in a race won by double-amputee South African Oscar Pistorius, and did not make it out of the qualifying rounds.[11][12] He was ranked 26th, two places and one-tenth of a second behind the runners who qualified for the semifinals.[13]

At the 2013 Maccabiah Games, Sanford broke the Israeli record and won the gold medal in the 400 meter race with a time of 45.65, defeating Australian Olympic finalist Steven Solomon.[14]

In 2014, Sanford won the

Alex Averbukh won gold medals in the pole vault in 2002 and 2006.[15][16]

In December 2014, he was named Israeli Sportsman of the Year.[17]

In June 2015, competing for Israel at the 2015 European Games, Sanford won the 400 m in 45.75, a European Games record, as Team Israel won a bronze medal.[18][19]

Sanford competed for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He ran the 400m and finished in 5th place in his heat in a time of 46.06, 10 split-seconds behind the semi-final qualifying time, and placed 33rd overall.[20]

Personal life

Sanford and his wife, Israeli native Danielle Dekel-Sanford, married in 2008, and live in Kibbutz Ein Shemer about an hour north of Tel Aviv with their children, Amerie Ann and Rylee.[8][3] His wife's father, Ehud Dekel, was the first Israeli to compete in four different sports in Israel’s highest sports league, the First League.[3] His older sister, Donnisha "CoCoa" Sanford was a member of the 2004 Pac-10 regular-season championship team for the University of Arizona women's basketball team. She also played professional basketball overseas from 2009-2012.

Personal bests

Distance Time Place Date
400m
 45.21 sec Eugene, Oregon June 13, 2010
400m
 45.27 sec
Zürich, Switzerland
 August 15, 2014
400m
 45.04 sec Meteor Stadium, Zhukovsky July 19, 2015

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Baku 2015 1St European Games - Athletes - BLAIR SANFORD Donald". Baku 2015. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ a b Tal Ben Ezra (July 9, 2012). "Olympics/ Profile/ Proud to run for his adopted country". Haaretz.
  3. ^ a b c "Former ASU runner Blair-Sanford races for Team Israel | Cronkite News". August 7, 2016.
  4. ^ "Donald Sanford". Flotrack.
  5. ^ a b c d "Donald Sanford Profile – Arizona State University Official Athletic Site". TheSunDevils.com.
  6. ^ Sinai, Allon (July 12, 2012). "Introducing Israel's Olympians: Donald Sanford". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  7. ^ "Donald Sanford (track and field – Israel)". ASU News. July 20, 2012.
  8. ^ a b Allon Sinai (July 12, 2012). "Introducing Israel's Olympians: Donald Sanford". The Jerusalem Post.
  9. ^ Yoel Goldman (August 4, 2012). "Israeli runner fails to qualify for semis in 400m after shoes stolen". The Times of Israel.
  10. ^ David Segal (August 4, 2012). "Before Sprints at Olympic Track, Sitting Down at the Table", The New York Times
  11. ^ Oren Aharoni (August 4, 2012). "Olympics: Israeli sprinter blames loss on stolen shoes". ynet.
  12. ^ "Donald Sanford". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
  13. ^ Shaul Adar (August 5, 2012). "Stolen shoes cause a nightmare for Israeli sprinter at London 2012". Haaretz.
  14. ^ "Maccabiah athletes reach their moment of truth". The Times of Israel.
  15. ^ a b c "Sanford dedicates Euro medal to IDF". The Jewish Chronicle. August 15, 2014.
  16. ^ Allon Sinai (August 15, 2014). "Sanford makes history as first Israeli sprinter to win medal at European Championship". The Jerusalem Post.
  17. ^ Green Fay Cashman (December 30, 2014). "Grapevine: The spice of life in Israel". The Jerusalem Post.
  18. ^ "European Athletics". european-athletics. June 23, 2015.
  19. ^ "Results"[usurped], Baku 2015
  20. ^ "Sanford fails to reach 400m semi-final".

External links

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