FORMER Della Pascoe, a British Olympic sprinter, died at the age of 74.
She competed in the Games in 1968 and 1972 and held the British record in the 100m, making her one of the country’s best athletes of the time.
According to Athletics Weekly, she died yesterday after a few years of suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
Pascoe, who was born in Southsea in 1949, excelled at the young level, winning several English school titles.
She travelled to Mexico in 1968 when she was only 19 years old and reached the 100m semi-finals.
However, it was in the quarterfinals that she made history, matching Dorothy Hyman’s British record of 11.3 seconds.
Pascoe was also a member of the 4x200m relay squad that smashed the world mark in 1968.
At the Munich 1972 Olympics, she was knocked out of the 200m quarter-finals and finished seventh in the 4x100m final four years later.
She went on to win 12 more medals at the Women’s AAA national championships.
Despite finishing on the podium in the 100m and 200m trials, Pascoe was controversially omitted from the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
Some suggested it was due to her marrying outspoken fellow athlete Alan Pascoe, whom she met as a teenager.
“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.
