Andy Turner represented Great Britain for a second time at the 2008 Summer Olympics and reached the quarter-finals stage. Following this performance, UK Athletics reviewed athletes funding and Turner's basic lottery grant of around £12,000 was cut, based on the assumption that he would not be a medal hopeful for the following year's World Championships.[4]
The following year he competed at the 2010 European Team Championships in Bergen, winning the 110 m hurdles competition in 13.48 seconds to help Great Britain to second place overall in the tournament.[7] Turner went on to his most significant victory to date in the 110 m hurdles at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona later that year. In the final, Turner got off to a quick start, but trailed Petr Svoboda in the final with thirty metres remaining, but when Svoboda collided badly with the eighth hurdle, Turner powered through and won in a time of 13.28.
Turner completed a successful 2010 season by winning the Commonwealth Games 110 m hurdles title in New Delhi in 13.38.
At the 2011 Manchester City Games, Turner ran the rarely run 200 meters hurdles on a straight in 22.10 (+2.0). That time was superior to the previous automatically timed best by Laurent Ottoz. Ottoz had run his race in 22.55 around the bend on a conventional track, Turner ran on a specially constructed straight track on the streets of Manchester. Turner's time still did not exceed the last officially ratified record in the event, a hand timed 21.9 by Don Styron that had already stood for more than half a century. The IAAF currently recognises all three times as records in "non-IAAF World Record events," Ottoz around a bend, Styron hand timed on a straight and Turner automatically timed on a straight.[8]
He then went on to win a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics after Dayron Robles was disqualified for putting Liu Xiang of China off balance. A year later on English soil at the 2012 Olympics, Turner was one of the hurdlers to help Liu off the track after his injury and dramatic exit.
Turner's defence of his Commonwealth title at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was halted when he crashed out of his first round heat. At the 2014 European Athletics Championships Turner announced that he would retire from athletics at the end of the year.[9]
After retiring from athletics, Turner initially took up a career as a personal trainer, before deciding to follow in the footsteps of his brother, Garry, a fitness model, by becoming a bodybuilder.[10]
All information taken from IAAF profile[11] and UKA profile.[12]
Television appearance
Turner appeared as the "This Is My..." guest in a 2013 episode of the British game show Would I Lie to You?, where he revealed that he was beaten in a speed-eating competition by track and field athlete Greg Rutherford.[13]
