Friday photos (9): Anita Neil - Britain's first black woman Olympian?

In this spot a few weeks ago we featured Lilian Board, who died a tragically early death in 1970 after winning a medal in the Mexico 1968 Olympics. One of Lilian's team mates in Mexico was Anita Neil - they ran together in the  4 x 100m team in Mexico.

As a young athlete in 1966, Neil was painted by Hubert William Pack (1926-1995). The oil painting is simply entitled 'Miss Anita Neil (b.1950)' and is in the collection of  Wellingborough Museum

Anita Neil first competed for Great Britain as a 16-year-old long jumper in a competition with France in 1966 (Times 19 September 1966), but it was as a sprinter that she really made her mark.

Anita Neil in 1970

She competed for Great Britain in Munich 1972 as well as in Mexico 1968, running in both Olympics in the Women's 100m and the 4 x 100m relay. In 1969 she won a bronze medal in the 100m at the European Championships and at the following year's Commonwealth games she won a silver in the 4 x 100m relay.

Neil with her silver medal in 1970
(image from her old school's website, the now demolished John Lea School)

In 2012, she was guest of honour at the opening of an Olympics exhibition at Wellingborough Museum. The local paper reported her comment that she was 'the only Wellingborough person from the town to represent their country in athletics at the games'. But I wonder whether she also had a wider significance - was she Britain's first black woman Olympic athlete? I am happy to be corrected, but have found no record of any earlier.

Her ethnicity may not have been a big deal in her career, but she was referred to in the Times as one of  two 'coloured British athletes' (the other being Verona Bernard) who declined an invitiation to take part in a competition in South Africa in 1971.

Anita Neil in 2012

The 4 x 100m metre team in Portsmouth in September 1968, just before leaving for Mexico
(left to right - Maureen Tranter, Anita Neil, Lillian Board, Janet Simpson) 

Neil wins the 100m at athletics event in Portsmouth in 1968,
equalling UK record of 10.6 seconds

Portsmouth 1972

There's some pathe footage of the 1972 Portsmouth race here.

Previously in the Friday Photos series:

New York High School Runners 1970s

Lilian Board, 1948-1970
Running in Tel Aviv 1942
Alan Turing the Runner

Marilyn Monroe the Runner
Tom Longboat, Canadian First Nations Marathon Runner
Runners in Space: an image from Munich 1972 on NASA's Voyager spacecraft

Jim Peters collapses in Vancouver 1954

Friday Photos (6): Runners in Space

This week's Friday photo appears to be an unremarkable image of four athletes running. Even the knowledge that it comes from the 1972 Olympics doesn't add very much to it. But what does make it extremely special is that this image is now travelling through space aboard the first spacecraft to leave our solar system. Earlier this month it was announced that Voyager 1, launched by NASA in 1977, had reached interstellar space. And amongst the images of life on earth included on Voyager for the benefit of any curious aliens who one day intercept it is this one. 

Voyager famously includes the Golden Record with sounds and images from our planet, selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan. There is music from Bach to Chuck Berry and pictures of landscapes, animals, buildings and humans engaged in various activities - including running. Despite the Cold War aspects of the space race, there is something very optimistic about this selection, a kind of planetary humanist vision that celebrates life on the third rock from the sun in all its diversity while simultaneously affirming what we have in common as a species beyond political and social divisions.

So who are the runners?  The NASA site just says that it is Soviet/Ukrainian sprinter Valeriy Borzov in the lead, and Borzov's wikipedia entry says that the photo was taken in the 200m heats at the 1972 Olympic Games (he went on to win the Gold medal in both the 100m and 200m). A look at the records of the Games, cross referenced to other photos, allows us to identify them left to right as follows:

- Su Wen-Ho, Republic of China (Taiwan) - who finished fifth in this heat;

- Motsapi Moorosi, Lesotho - who finished 4th;

- Valeriy Borzov, USSR - the winner;

-  Edwin Roberts, Trinidad - who came 2nd

(thanks to Spikes on twitter for getting me started on this by mentioning the photo)

The Golden Record

Previously in this series:

New York High School Runners 1970s

Running in Tel Aviv 1942

Alan Turing the Runner

Marilyn Monroe the Runner

Tom Longboat, Canadian First Nations Marathon Runner
Lilian Board - 1948-1970