By David Martin, PA Sport

Mary Rand with her long blonde hair was the first "Golden Girl" of British athletics, and in Tokyo in 1964 fully justified that accolade as the first British woman to win an Olympic medal.

Rand - now living in the United States and looking as trim and fit as ever - will never forget the marvellous October day when she put together the finest series of long jump performances and the world record leap of 6.76 metres, which gained her the victory she craved for.

But that was not all the 24-year-old Wells-born star achieved in the first major sports championships to be held in Japan.

Rand came away with a silver in the pentathlon - also only the second ever person to exceed 5000 points - and following those exertions ran in the British 4x100m relay team which won the bronze medal.

Rand was born to be a sports star. The wife of international sculler Sidney, October 14 will forever live in her mind.

Setting an Olympic record as the best qualifier when jumping 6.52m, she then turned on the style when dominating the final.

Quite rightly, after an attack of nerves four years earlier in Rome pushed her into ninth place after leading the qualifiers, one couldn't blame the Millfield School scholarship pupil for wondering whether her Olympic dreams might again be shattered.

But in the time gap since that disappointment Rand had matured beyond her wildest dreams.

A couple months after the birth of her daughter she was back in action, finishing third in the 1962 European Championships long jump.

The following year she was a member of Britain's world record breaking relay squad.

But 1964 was a year she had yearned for after suffering heartbreaking disappointment in the Eternal City.

Quite simply she blew away the challenges of the Soviet favourite Tatyana Shchelkanova and Poland's converted sprint star Irena Kirszenstein.

Her first jump of 6.59m, with a 1.4m per second following wind, was a British record.

Showing she meant serious business her next two were 6.56 and 6.57m.

But in the fifth round, with the runway wet and soggy and having to cope with a headwind of 1.6 metres per second, Rand dealt the death blow to any aspirations her opponents had.

The John Le Masurier-coached athlete produced her mammoth world record-breaking leap which started what was for her the beginning of a perfect Olympics. Before the Games began, Rand said: "What I would love to do at the Olympics would be to win with a world record."

History will recall that is exactly what happened.