Background
McPeake was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland and was a member of Ballymena and Antrim Athletics Club.
McPeake was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland and was a member of Ballymena and Antrim Athletics Club.
As a seventeen-year-old in 1979, she finished third at the AAAs National Championships with 1.73 metres. In 1981, she finished third at the United Kingdom National Championships with a clearance of 1.83m. In 1985, she finished second at the United Kingdom Championships, behind fellow Northern Irish athlete Janet Boyle.
She finished second behind Diana Davies at both the United Kingdom Championships and AAAs Championships with 1.80 m.
In 1982, McPeake competed at her first Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, finishing ninth with 1.74 m. The best season of McPeake"s career came in 1986. She also competed at the European Championships in Stuttgart, where she was eliminated in the qualifying round.
In 1987, she again finished second at the AAAs Championships with 1.85 m.
Her season"s best for the year was 1.89 m. In 1988, now competing as Sharon Hutchings, she narrowly missed Olympic selection for Seoul.
At the AAAs Championships incorporating the Olympic trials, with the top two guaranteed selection, she was third, losing second place on countback. The third Olympic spot went to that years United Kingdom number one Diana Davies, who had cleared 1.92 m a month before the trials.
Auckland would prove to be the conclusion of her international career.
Her best of 1.90 m from 1986 ranks her (as of 2014) 17th on the United Kingdom all-time list and second behind Janet Boyle on the Northern Irish all-time list.