Further Information 

Competition Stats

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:
100 metres: 2001 (U20) - 1st, 2002 (U20) - 6th, 2003 (U20) - 1st, 2004 - 3rd (2nd Australian), 2005 - 1st, 2006 - 1st, 2007 - 1st
200 metres: 2001 (U20) - 4th, 2003 (U20) - 2nd (1st Australian)
100m hurdles: 2003 (U20) - 1st, 2004 - 2nd, 2005 - 1st (equal) (U20) – 1st, 2006 - 1st, 2007 - 1st

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Olympic Games: 2008 - 100m hurdles 2nd (12.64)
World Youth Championships: 2003 - 100m hurdles 1st (13.42), 200m 5th (24.01), medley relay DQ heats
World Junior Championships: 2004 - 100m 3rd (11.40), 100m hurdles 4th (13.41), 4 x 100m relay 5th (45.10)
World Championships: 2003 - 4 x 100m 6th heat (44.11), 2007 - 100m 8th semi (11.32), 100m hurdles 5th semi (12.82), 4 x 100m 8th heat (43.91)
Commonwealth Youth Games: 2004 - 100m 3rd (12.26), 100m hurdles 1st (14.11), 4 x 100m 2nd (46.08) medley relay 3rd (3.56.37)
Commonwealth Games: 2006 - 100m 7th (11.50), 100m hurdles fell in final, 4 x 100m 3rd (44.25)
World Cup: 2006 - 100m 8th (11.44), 100m hurdles 4th (12.95), 4 x 100m 5th (44.26)

ANNUAL PROGRESSION:

100 metres:
2001 11.91
2002 12.01
2003 11.57
2004 11.40
2005 11.41
2006 11.36
2007 11.14
2008 11.41

100m hurdles:
2003 14.01
2004 13.30
2005 13.01
2006 12.95
2007 12.71
2008 12.53

200 metres:
2001 24.26
2003 23.78
2004 23.90/23.86w
2005 23.45
2006 23.36
2007 23.55/23.42w

Interesting Facts

Sally started athletics seriously after moving to Queensland from Sydney where she had participated successfully in swimming and gymnastics.

Her idols include Catherine Freeman, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and actress Julia Roberts.

Sporting Career

In 1999 and 2000, Sally won a swathe of Little Athletics and primary school titles. Primarily a sprinter and hurdler, she was also a capable long and high jumper, evidenced by her silver medal winning performance in the pentathlon at the Australian Little Athletics Championships in April 2001.

A month earlier, aged only 14 years, she had won the Australian under 20 100m title in a time of 11.91. As the next season began in October 2001, she lowered her 200m best to 24.26 and set a National Under 16 90m hurdles record.

Injured for much of 2002, Sally was back in form late in the year and in 2003, lowering the Australian under-18 100m hurdles record on several occasions to a best of 13.42 and winning the national under 20 100m/200m/100m hurdles treble. Selected for both the World and the World Youth Championships, she became the youngest Australian athlete to be selected for the former where she ran the anchor leg in the 4 x 100m relay.

After a series of great lead-up performances, Sally won the 100m hurdles at the World Youths and posted a meet record in her heat. She finished fifth in the 200m final.

With Olympic selection chances gone when the 4 x 100m relay team did not qualify, Sally was able to concentrate solely on the World Junior Championships. Again she showed her capacity to deliver on big occasions, lowering both her 100m best to 11.40 to claim a surprise bronze and her hurdles PB to 13.30 in the heats, before finishing fourth in the final.

Sally was busy in 2004-05, winning four medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo and then at the Australian Championships she became the first woman to win the 100m/100m hurdles double after dead heating (with Fiona Cullen) in the hurdles.

Sally repeated her double success at the 2006 Nationals before travelling to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games where she made the 100 metres final, before crashing in the hurdles when challenging for a medal. Some consolation came in the form of a relay bronze.

Unfazed by the prospects of a first foray into the European circuit, Sally ended her tour with a 12.95 fourth placing at the World Cup in Athens, breaking the 13-second barrier for the first time and a portent of things to come over the ensuing six months.

In a 2006-07 domestic season where much of the speculation was when she would break Pam Ryan’s long standing national 100m hurdles record of 12.93, Sally continued to progress but was frustrated by excessive winds on occasions. But in the very last event of the 2007 Australian Championships in Brisbane in March, the wait was finally over. Despite the drama of a late recall of the start when her blocks slipped, Sally retained her cool to take .01 seconds off the 34-year-old mark, having also set a new PB in winning the 100 metres.

Even better news came at the Osaka Grand Prix in May, when she not only defeated a world-class field to win the 100m hurdles but with the monkey of the record clearly off her back, she also smashed her national mark, lowering it to 12.71.

Sally prepared for the World Championships at home, mixing a heavy training block with competitions at her home track on the Gold Coast.

Outside of world champions Jana Rawlinson and Nathan Deakes, Sally was one of Australia’s best performers in Osaka - highlighted by her progression to the semi finals in both the 100m and 100m hurdles. In her 100m heat, she ran a scorching personal best of 11.14 (+1.7) - the second fastest time in history by an Australian woman and, comfortably, the best time run by an Australian woman at the World Championships.

Sally’s fondness of the Osaka track continued in the semi-final of the hurdles where she ran a time second only to a PB run in May and added a strong first leg in the 4 x 100m relay team that didn’t progress beyond the heats.

Despite being reasonably pleased with her individual results, the rigour of contesting both the flat and hurdles (she ran the 100m heat, quarter-final, semi-final and 100m hurdles heat in consecutive days) was obvious though she handled the demands superbly.

Following Osaka, Sally ran in Zurich, won the 100m at the IAAF World Tour meet in Rieti, Italy and finished fourth in the 100m hurdles at the IAAF Golden League meet in Berlin. However, disqualification spoiled the hurdles event at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, with Sally one of three removed in false starts.

Season 2007/08, started well for the young charger with victory in the 100 metres (11.26) and the 100m hurdles (12.81) at the Sydney Track Classic. She then took the double at the Canberra Athletics Classic with 11.41 in the 100 metres and a scintillating 12.72 in the 100m hurdles, just 0.01 seconds outside her PB set in Osaka the year before. However a hamstring injury sustained whilst warming up for the Australia Cup saw her miss the Sydney and Melbourne Grand Prix meets and the National Championships.

In her last hit out before she makes her Olympic debut, Sally broke her own Australian record for the second time in two weeks, clocking 12.53 to finish second at the IAAF World Tour in Monaco. The new Australian and Oceania record would be the 5th fastest clocked in 2008.

Sally clinched an historic silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, winning Australia’s first ever medal in the women's 100m hurdles.

In the dramatic final, favourite Lolo Jones from the USA stumbled at the penultimate barrier, leaving the door open for the remainder of the field to storm past.

Only 3/100th of a second separated places second to sixth, with American Dawn Harper awarded the gold in a personal best time of 12.54.

McLellan’s time of 12.64, was the same time given to bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada, however the ecstatic Aussie was given the nod after an agonising wait for the photo finish result.