Donald Sanford (athlete)

Donald Eugene Blair-Sanford (born February 5, 1987) is an American-Israeli Olympic sprinter, who specialises in the 400 metre dash.

Donald Blair-Sanford
Personal information
Full nameDonald Eugene Blair-Sanford
Nickname(s)DBS
CitizenshipAmerican–Israeli
Born (1987-02-05) February 5, 1987
Los Angeles, California
Alma mater
Height1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)[1]
Weight80 kg (180 lb)[1]
Spouse(s)Danielle Dekel
Sport
Country Israel
SportAthletics
Event(s)400m
ClubMaccabi Tel Aviv
Coached byLloyd Cowan
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)400m; 45.04 seconds
Medal record
Representing Israel Israel
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place2014 Zürich400 m
European Games
Bronze medal – third place2015 BakuMixed team
Representing Europe
Continental Cup
Silver medal – second place2014 Marrakech4 × 400 m relay
Updated on October 10, 2015.

His personal record at 400 metres is 45.04 seconds. He represented Israel in the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the bronze medal in 400 metres at the 2014 European Athletics Championships, with a new 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 Israeli citizen after marrying Israeli basketball player Danielle Dekel, whom he met when they were both students at Central Arizona College where she was playing basketball for the school.[2][6] He earned an associate degree at Central Arizona in 2007, where he ran on two NJCAA Outdoor Championship teams (in 2006 and 2007).[5]

He also studied at Arizona State University, which he represented in athletic competitions within the United States,[5] and set his 400m personal record of 45.21 seconds. He was the 2010 NCAA runner-up at 400 meters and was part of the 4×400-meter indoor and outdoor relays that season, and was named an 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 bronze medal in the 400 metres sprint at the European Athletic Championships held in Zurich on August 15, 2014, with a new Israeli record of 45.27 seconds.[15] He dedicated his medal to the Israel Defense Forces.[15] He was the second Israeli to win a medal at the European Athletic Championships, after 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. "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. Tal Ben Ezra (July 9, 2012). "Olympics/ Profile/ Proud to run for his adopted country". Haaretz.
  3. "Former ASU runner Blair-Sanford races for Team Israel | Cronkite News". August 7, 2016.
  4. "Donald Sanford". Flotrack.
  5. "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. 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. "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".
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