Fred Salle

Frédéric Ebong-Salle,^[1] better known as Fred Salle (born 10 September 1964) is a British-Cameroonian retired athlete who specialised in the long jump. He competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics.^[2]

Salle finished second behind Mike Conley at the 1983 AAA Championships but by virtue of being the highest placed British athlete was considered the British long jump champion.^[3] He won the title outright the following year at the 1984 AAA Championships.^[4]

Salle won the silver medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, representing England.^[5][6]

Starting in the 1986–87 indoor season, Salle opted to represent Cameroon (the birthplace of his father).^[7][8] He competed in a high jump meeting in December 1986, jumping a personal best of 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m). His best jump while representing England had been 2.13 metres, achieved in May 1985 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[8] Salle competed internationally for his new country, starting at the 1987 World Championships, though he did not reach the final round.^[9] At the 1987 Central African Games, he won the gold medals in both long and high jump,^[10] and at the 1988 African Championships, he won the silver medal in the long jump—behind Yusuf Alli—and the bronze medal in the high jump.^[11] He then competed at the 1988 Olympic Games, but 7.65 metres in the qualifying round was not enough to reach the final.^[1] At the 1989 World Indoor Championships he only managed 7.31 metres, ending in last place of the qualifying round.^[12] At the 1991 World Indoor Championships, he ended third to last with 7.11 metres.^[13] He won a silver medal as a guest competitor at the AAA Indoor Championships of 1990.^[14]

By 1992 he had returned to representing Great Britain in competitions.^[15] He competed at the World Championships in 1993 and 1995 as well as the 1995 World Indoor Championships without reaching the final.^[9] However, he won the 1994 IAAF World Cup competition in London with a jump of 8.10 metres (his personal best).^[16] This was Salle's personal best jump. He did have one wind-assisted 8.10 result in the same year, achieved in July in Gateshead.^[8] He represented England, at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.^[17][18][19]

In domestic competitions, in addition to his 1983 and 1985 AAA successes, he won a bronze medal in 1992 and a silver in 1993 at the UK Athletics Championships^[15] and at the AAA Championships, he won further gold medals in 1993 and 1995 and a silver in 1994.^[20]

After retiring from competitive competition, Salle working at many different ICT firms, and then turned to teaching. He is currently employed at Oriel High School, Crawley.