FORMER British Olympic sprinter Della Pascoe has died aged 74.
The star competed at the Games in 1968 and 1972 and held the 100m British record, making her one of the country’s finest athletes of her era.
According to Athletics Weekly, she passed away yesterday after suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for a few years.
Born in Southsea in 1949, Pascoe – initially Della James – excelled at youth level winning various English schools titles.
She went to Mexico 1968 aged just 19 and reached the 100m semi-finals.
However, it was in the quarters that she made history by equalling Dorothy Hyman’s British record with a time of 11.3 seconds.
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Pascoe also formed one leg of the 4x200m team that broke the world record in 1968.
Four years later at the Munich 1972 Olympics, she was knocked out of the 200m in the quarter-finals and finished seventh in the 4x100m final.
She won a further 12 medals at the Women’s AAA national championships.
However, Pascoe was controversially snubbed for the 1974 Commonwealth Games – despite finishing on the podium in the 100m and 200m trials.
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Some suggested it was due to her marrying outspoken fellow athlete Alan Pascoe, whom she met as a teenager.
Pascoe said in 2017: “Alan and I met at the running track in Portsmouth.
“I had to slow down for him to catch me.”
Following the Commonwealth heartache, Pascoe subsequently retired and spent time as an art teacher and did lots of charity work, specifically raising money through popular garden parties.
Della and Alan had two children together, daughter Lucy and son Daniel.
Source: Athletics - thesun.co.uk
