The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 55: Murray wins high jump gold (1990)
She was aged 19 when she won the high jump in Auckland in 1990.
"I was quite young and Auckland was going to be my starting point," Murray said a few years later.
"There was a lot of pressure that I didn't expect when I became the champion."
Australian Vanessa Ward, who had jumped 1.98m, was the favourite to win.
The marathon event at Mt Smart Stadium was down to a jump-off between Murray and Janet Boyle (Northern Ireland) after three hours.
Six jumpers cleared 1.88m but everyone failed at the next height of 1.91m.
Murray and Boyle were left to dispute the gold and silver medals because they had cleared the bar with their first jump at each height.
The jump-off added drama and kept the crowd interested because a Kiwi had the chance of gold.
Jumpers get one attempt at each height in the jump-off. They both missed at 1.91m but cleared it at 1.88m. It was put back up to 1.91m. It was too high again and the bar was lowered back to 1.88m. They both missed and it was lowered to 1.85m.
It had become an endurance event and both jumpers were tired. Murray won the psychological battle when Boyle told her "that I'm really tired, let's hurry up and finish this competition".
"Maybe it was meant to be a psyche-out but I didn't pick it up that way," Murray said. "That conversation made me so strong."
Murray jumped first and cleared the bar at 1.85m. An exhausted Boyle failed.
The gold medal was Murray's. She grabbed a New Zealand flag and jogged around the arena in triumph as the crowd cheered.
Good fortune failed Murray after this because of a series of knee and ankle injuries to her right leg, her take-off leg.
She was involved in a controversy when not nominated for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Then Dunedin mayor Richard Walls sent a strongly worded letter to the chairman of Athletics New Zealand, and Colin Croudis, the principal of Logan Park High School, Murray's old school, sent a personal letter to national selection convener Allan Potts.
Murray and husband Greg Dixon shifted to the United States in the late 1990s. Murray returned to Otago after the marriage broke up, and she is now the sports co-ordinator at Cromwell College.
