In the 1987 World Championships in Rome, Fatima became World Champion, with a throw of 76.64 meters, the only British winner during the entire Championships.
This success saw her win the 1987 B.B.C Sports Personality of the Year, the Athletics Writers Female Athlete of the Year, the sports writers’ Sportswoman of the Year and LT.V Sports Personality of the Year. This is the only occasion that one sportswoman has won all awards in the same year.
The New Year’s Honours List of 1988 saw Fatima awarded the M.B.E.
1988 brought illness and injury, and it was touch and go that Fatima would travel to Seoul for the Olympic games. Once again, ignoring medical advice she competed, winning the Silver Medal.
A horrendous shoulder injury at the beginning of 1989, followed by a recurrence of that injury whilst making her come back at Cardiff in June, 1990, forced Fatima to retire from the competitive arena.
Fatima is now President of Asics Chafford Hundred Athletic Club, a club formed for the elite British athletes to make themselves available for promotional, advertising and endorsement packages.
In November 1992 the Minister of Health officially appointed Fatima as a non-Executive Director of Thames Community Healthcare Trust. From 1992-1996 she was the Government representative on the Eastern Region Sports Council. In October 1992 until 1994 Fatima was the Ambassador for V.S.O, succeeding David Essex. The only previous Ambassador to David Essex was Lord Litchfield.
In May 1997 Fatima married Andrew Norman and in February 1998 gave birth to a son, Ryan, in Pretoria, South Africa.
Family commitments, charity work, athletics coaching, personal appearances, business activities and her work with Asics Chafford Hundred Athletic Club keep Fatima fully occupied.
In 2000 she was the driving force to introduce an EAA/IAAF programme of meetings, which provide competition for national teams whose athletes have not reached the level of performance necessary to compete in the Golden League. Currently (2004) Fatima is still very much involved with the development programme with the EAA/IAAF.
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