James Gurr

James Gurr (born 20th December 1983) is a retired Australian Track & Field athlete, who specialised mainly in the 800 metres. Gurr was a long standing figure within the Australian domestic circuit making 7 National finals in his career and was twice a Bronze Medalist. Gurr represented Australia in the 2017 World Relay Championships. He also represented Seton Hall University from 2006-2009.

Gurr started out as a 400m runner with modest success, making the Olympic Trials final in 2004, in which he finished fourth. However, he was unable to make the Athens Olympic 4x400 team, which would go on to win the silver medal behind the United States. After small improvements over the next 2 years, including lowering his personal best to 46.53, Gurr moved to the United States to compete for Seton Hall University.

Competing for Seton Hall University under the tutelage of 1984 Olympian John Marshall, Gurr switched to the 800 metres, enjoying decent success, especially indoors, achieving medals at both the Big East Conference Championships and IC4A championships. His main success came in the 4x400m relay which dominated the Big East Conference from 2007-2009. Gurr graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education, minoring in English in 2009. He finished his collegiate career with a 1:48.51 personal best.

Gurr enjoyed greater success upon his return to Australia. Training under two-time Olympian Penny Gillies, he improved his personal best to 1:46.77, placing third in the 2010 Australian Championships. In 2011, he improved his personal best to 1:46.52. In 2012 he again lowered his personal best to 1:46.45 to finish third at the Olympic Trials

After some difficult years, including a year training with the Santa Monica Track Club, Gurr returned to peak form in 2016, running a personal best of 1:46.09, narrowly missing the Rio qualifier of 1:46.00. In 2017, Gurr made his only Australian team in 2017 for the IAAF World Relays, finishing fourth, though the silver medal winning team from Kenya were under a cloud, after Kipyegon Bett tested positive for performance enhancing drugs the following year. Gurr competed for another year before retiring.

Gurr had a brief relationship with multiple world 400m Hurdles champion Jana Pittman in late 2014 to early 2015. Since retiring from athletics, Gurr now works as a High School English Teacher in Sydney Australia.