Mary Rand at 80

THE ORIGINAL ‘GOLDEN GIRL’ OF BRITISH ATHLETICS TURNS 80 NEXT WEEK. MEL WATMAN, WHO WAS IN TOKYO TO REPORT FOR AW ON HER 1964 OLYMPIC LONG JUMP TRIUMPH, LOOKS BACK ON HER DAZZLING CAREER

- MEL WATMAN

HIGH jumper Dorothy Odam (Tyler) in 1936 and hurdler Maureen Gardner (Dyson) in 1948 came so very close, but the distinction of becoming Britain’s first female Olympic athletics champion fell to Mary Rand in Tokyo in 1964. What’s more, she broke the world record in the process ... and went on to win a silver medal in the pentathlon and bronze as a member of the 4x100m team!

When I interviewed her at her home in Henley-on-Thames just before the Games she told me: “The greatest thing of all would be to do a world record at the Olympics – like Herb Elliott, for instance. That would be wonderful.”

Twenty-three days later her hopes and dreams became a reality.

Born in Wells, Somerset, on February 10, 1940, Mary Bignal, as she was then, first attracted attention while a sports scholarship pupil at Millfield School. She won the 1956 WAAA intermediate high jump and long jump titles and proved herself at senior level by taking second place in that year’s WAAA Championships high jump with the same height as winner Dorothy Tyler and was fourth in the long jump. In 1957, only 17, she entered her first pentathlon and promptly set an English record of 4046 points; she also made her international debut as a high jumper.

Next year, now a member of London Olympiades AC, she became WAAA high jump champion, took a silver medal in the long jump at the Commonwealth Games and finished seventh in the pentathlon at the European Championships with a UK record score of 4466. It was from that time that John Le Masurier became her coach. In 1959 she produced world class UK records of 6.19m in the long jump and 4679 in the pentathlon.