Page 3
Mary, the athlete
stands tall and strong
displaying her medal
gold, silver and bronze
..... MARY PETERS took the pentathlon at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and brought home the Gold Medal for Britain and became a household name with the nickname of 'Golden Girl'. She was born in Halewood, Lancashire on July 6th 1939 and started to compete in the pentathlon at the age of 17. In the 1964 Olympics she was placed fourth, was ninth in the 1968 Olympics and won gold medals in both the shot and the pentathlon at the Fourth Commonwealth Games. She won the Olympic Gold with a world record pentathlon score of 4801 points. As a result she was created an MBE. Prior to the Olympics she had raised the British pentathlon record to 4630 points ranking her 5th among the pentathlon contenders. She campaigned for more sports facilities in Northern Ireland, helped to raise money for a new running track in Belfast and is the owner of the Mary Peters Health Club just outside Belfast. Mary organised charity events and is a member of the Northern Ireland Sports Council. She said that her ambition was to bring the Commonwealth Games to Belfast in the 1990s
..... MARY DENISE RAND was the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics with a world record jump of 22' 2¼" in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. She was born in 1940 in Wells, Somerset and at the age of 17 set a national record of 4046 points in the pentathlon. After this she has a long list of medals which she earned throughout her years as an athlete - a silver medal in the 1958 Commonwealth Games long jump, came seventh in the European pentathlon championships,in the 1960 Olympics she set a British record of 20' 9¼", won a bronze medal in the European long jump, shared in the world relay record in 1963 and won her gold the following year. She won a silver medal at the pentathlon and second place on the world's all time list with 5035 points and then a bronze by contributing to the British teams 3rd place in the 4 x 100 metres relay. In 1966 she won, a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games long jump. Due to an injury she could not compete with the 1968 British Olympic team and so retired. Mary Rand was created an MBE and holds many records for the high jump, long jump and the pentathlon