Marita Payne

Marita Payne

Marita Payne-Wiggins (born October 7, 1960 in Barbados) is a Canadian athlete who competed in two consecutive Summer Olympics for Canada, starting in 1984. She ran for Florida State University. She remains the co-Canadian record holder over the 400 metres with her time of 49.91 seconds, along with Jillian Richardson.

She came to international prominence in 1983: she took the 200 metres silver medal behind Randy Givens at the 1983 Universiade and help Canada to silver medals in both the 4 x 100 meter and 4 x 400 meter relays; she competed at the inaugural 1983 World Championships in Athletics shortly afterwards. At the championships in Helsinki she finished fifth in the women's 400 metres – the best performance by a non-European athlete in the discipline, breaking the existing Commonwealth record with a 50.06 clocking . She also teamed up with her Canadian compatriots in the 4 x 100 metres relay and 4 x 400 metres relay events, where they finished fifth and fourth in the finals, respectively.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, United States she won the silver medal in the 4 x 400 metres with her team mates Charmaine Crooks, Jillian Richardson and Molly Killingbeck. She also competed with her teammates Angela Bailey, Angella Taylor-Issajenko and France Gareau in the 4 x 100 metres in which the team finished second, beaten again by the hosts United States. She finished fourth in the individual 400 m at the games.

She helped the Canadian 4 x 400 metres relay team to the gold medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. She reached the semi-finals of the 400 m at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and, along with Crooks, Killingbeck and Richardson, she took Canada to fourth position in the 4 x 400 metres relay. The team reunited for the 1988 Summer Olympics, but failed to finish in the final of the relay.

Outside of the global events, she won silver medals in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1983 and 1987 Pan American Games.