Read this in local paper today. Below is link.... if that doesn't work for international readers I've pasted the article under the link.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tributes-merseysides-golden-girl-track-4291016TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Olympic medallist from Merseyside who died while sunbathing in her garden.
Champion runner Donna Hartley-Wass overcame injury to inspire the nation as she helped clinch bronze for GB’s 4x400m women’s relay team at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Her former coach and several ex-Olympic track stars revealed their sadness at the death of the one- time “golden girl of British athletics”.
A former Bootle bank clerk, Donna was found dead in the back garden of her Yorkshire home on Saturday.
British athlete Sonia Lannaman wins the 200 Metres Semi final with Donna Murray (left) in second place at the Kraft Athletics Championships at Crystal Palace. 4th June 1976 British athlete Sonia Lannaman wins the 200 Metres Semi final with Donna Murray (left) in second place at the Kraft Athletics Championships at Crystal Palace. 4th June 1976
A post-mortem to establish the cause of the 58- year-old’s death is expected to take place this week.
Former coach Mike Smith paid tribute to the track star, who became double commonwealth champion in 1978 after winning the individual 400m and 4x400m relay in Edmonton, Canada. Mr Smith said: “My wife Joan and I are devastated.
“She began training with me as a 13-year-old and first competed for GB as a 17-year-old at the Munich Olympics in 1972 – she was the youngest member in the British team.
“Donna was very talented but also tremendously dedicated, she never missed a training session.
“For a period in the mid-1970s, she carried the mantle for British women’s athletics, and was truly golden girl of British athletics with her long blonde hair and fluid running style. Donna achieved an incredible amount, not just in athletics but in life itself.
“After she retired from athletics, she stayed in regular contact with us although she was living in South Yorkshire.
“She was a lovely person. Our thoughts and condolences are with her husband, Bobby.”
Donna, who ran under her maiden name Murray, won over the nation with a stirring performance in Moscow that saw her run the final leg of the 4x400m relay for GB, surging through the field to claim third place for the team.
It was an emotional success for her – given six months’ paid leave by her Midland Bank employers to prepare for the event, she had suffered from injuries and a loss of form and was axed from the individual 400m event she had once dominated. That had placed huge pressure on her performance in the 400m relay, where she ran the anchor leg.
At the time, the ECHO’s Charles Lambert reported: “At an Olympics which produced many stirring track and field performances by British athletes, there was no performance more heart warming than that superb run by Merseyside’s most famous bank clerk.
“Few observers would have given a bounced cheque for Britain’s chances as Donna occupied fifth place going round the final bend on the final leg.
“With the television cameras concentrating on the battle between Russia and East Germany for the gold and silver medals, the real drama was missed as Donna surged through to take third place.”
She described that race as the greatest of her life.
At the time, she lived in Burscough with athlete husband Bill Hartley, but after nine years of marriage they “drifted apart” and Donna left the house they built in Aughton and her job with the bank she’d worked at since she was 16.
She later married Coronation Street actor Bobby Knutt and as Donna Hartley-Wass competed for several years on the UK women’s body building circuit.
Former GB athletics stars Iwan Thomas and Sally Gunnell took to Twitter to pay their respects to her.
Former 400m runner Thomas wrote: “Really sad to hear about Donna Hartley she was a lovely lady and amazing ath-
lete . . . Taken far too young #RIP
