By David Emery Lillian. A biography of the great Olympic Athlete (First Edition)

Product Information

That 800 m final proved to be her last race. X-rays revealed inflammation of the bladder and her condition was initially diagnosed as Crohn's disease, forcing her to halt training and ruling her out of July's Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. However, after further X-rays, tests and two biopsies she was correctly diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer (or bowel cancer) in September 1970. An exploratory operation at St Mark's Hospital, London, on 8 October, revealed that the cancer had spread to her stomach and she was given two months to live. [23]

Winter training was where Hemery put in the long, hard sessions to build stamina. However, he adds: “I seriously overdid the endurance work in the build-up to 1972. For three months, I averaged just under 60 miles a week, in addition to weight sessions, sand dunes and speed hills weekly. Given a chance to start again, I would certainly increase the reps and lower the distance that I did in 1971-1972.” Arguably one of Hemery’s key messages is emphasising just how much youngsters can learn through sport. He finishes on a philosophical note, summing up his attitude to the sport he loves and to life in general. What I have noticed though, looking at some of the images of British athletes over previous Games, is that Britain, up until Seoul '88 used to compete in an all white kit with two bands around the chest, one red and one blue.. Adored by the whole country, Lillian Board was smart, bubbly, talented, gorgeous and very, very fast. She has streets named after her in Ealing and Greenford. She is remembered too at Munich’s Olympic stadium. I wonder if our London 2012 Committee has any plans to commemorate her? I think they should.*

Lillian Board was born in South Africa, but when she was eight or nine, her family moved to Ealing. By her late teens she was excelling as an athlete at 200m, 400m and 800m. By 1968, aged just 20, she was the best in the world. In addition to her Olympics silver, she won two golds at the European championships the following year. She appeared on Question of Sport in its early days and also Desert Island Discs. She was awarded an MBE in the 1970 New Year’s honours. In the summer of that year, she was training hard at 800m with an eye to Munich 1972.

They were really sure they’d never seen anything like this,” Jill says. “They said our family was extremely unique, and they couldn’t define what type it was. And ultimately, that’s good in one way because they’re being honest. But on the other hand, it was terrifying…It’s alarming if you don’t have something to grasp a hold of.” The Pursuit Of Sporting Excellence A Study Of Sport's Highest Achievers, 1986, ISBN 978-087-322131-3 Soon after the mile race in Rome, she began to suffer from stomach upsets. These were diagnosed as a virus and she was prescribed pills. She continued to feel unwell but still managed to contribute a 2:07.0 leg to a 4 × 800 m world record on 13 June in Edinburgh. She ran 2:06.8 six days later when winning her 800 m heat at the Women's AAA championships at Crystal Palace, London, despite being doubled up in pain before the race. [22] Pale and underweight, she then finished a tired third (2:05.1) in the 800 m final on 20 June. [11] Diagnosis and treatment [ edit ]Her condition worsened and she was moved to an intensive care unit at the clinic on 11 December. The following day, she underwent an operation to drain water from her abdomen. [25] Early death [ edit ] Board ran two-mile races early in the 1970 campaign, partly to build up stamina for the 800 m and partly with the aim of becoming the first athlete to represent Britain at all distances, the 1500 m being the only one missing from her collection. After running a solid 4:55.7 on her miling debut, she was selected for an international mile race in Rome on 16 May. Here she improved her personal best to 4:44.6, finishing second to a former mile world record holder, Paola Pigni of Italy. Her time moved her to No 2 in the UK all-time lists for the women's mile, behind only another former world record holder at the distance, Anne Smith. [21] Cancer and early death [ edit ] Initial health problems [ edit ]

Locally, he coaches hurdles on weekends, but travels all over the country going into schools or working for his charity. He also enjoys spending time with his family. Both sons – Adrian and Pete – are in their early 30s, with Adrian having inherited his father’s athletics genes and enjoying a stint as a GB international decathlete as a student. He now teaches maths at St Paul’s in London, while Pete works in computing for an engineering firm near Cambridge.We all have ‘choice’ and Lillian choose to ‘try’ knowing she was making an unusual, possibly controversial choice, and sadly a choice made too late. When Hemery first arrived in the US and Smith was looking after him on a bleak, snowy day, he opened the front door when David came down ready to do some work, and said: "The road to Mexico is out there." And he forced him into a run. Before he made amends to Sherwood though, Coleman finished his race commentary. “Hemery won it all the way,” he enthused. “Hemery won that from start to finish. He killed the rest. He paralysed them.” His margin of victory was more than eight metres, he set a new world record and he became the first Briton to win the event dubbed “the mankiller” since David George Brownlow Cecil, Lord Burghley, had set an Olympic record in the final in the Amsterdam Games in 1928.