Donna Hartley obituary | Athletics

Obituary

Donna Hartley obituary

Golden girl of British athletics in the 1970s who later became a top bodybuilder

No British athlete competing in the 1970s was more instantly recognisable than Donna Hartley, the one-time golden girl of the sport, who has died suddenly, aged 58. With her long blonde hair, blue eyes and striking good looks, she was the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine profiles after bursting to prominence by winning the AAA's 200m title, aged 17, in 1972 to earn selection for the Great Britain team for the Munich Olympics. She reached the semi-finals of the event and went on to achieve double gold-medal success at the Commonwealth Games of 1978 and a 4x400m relay bronze medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980.

Hartley had a slender frame and a long-striding running style that set athletics aficionados purring at a time when women's sprint events were dominated by East German and Soviet athletes – now known to have been the product of state-organised doping programmes.

She was born Donna-Marie Louise Murray in Southampton and took up running seriously when she was about 13 and a pupil at Hampton Park school. Joining Southampton Amateur Athletics Club, she quickly progressed when she was taken on, aged 15, by Mike Smith, who went on to coach the 400m runners Roger Black and Iwan Thomas as well as the hurdler Kriss Akabusi.

Representing her country on 37 occasions, she also ran herself into the record books, setting a new UK 400m best of 51.28 seconds in Sofia in 1975 while running for her country in the semi-finals of the European Cup. Three years later she would clock an impressive 22.75 for the 200m, taking the UK record from Sonia Lannaman at a time that still ranks her as the sixth fastest British runner ever.

In 1977 Donna married Bill Hartley, who had won a silver medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. The following year she won two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games staged in Edmonton, Canada, where she triumphed in the 400m and the 4x400m relay.

Donna Hartley in 1988. Photograph: Rex Features

Hartley, appointed MBE in 1979, was a household name by the time she began her preparations for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Although given six months off by her employers, the Midland Bank, she lost form and was bitterly disappointed when she was not selected for the individual 400m. But she went on to produce what she described as "the greatest race of my life" when she ran the anchor leg for the British team in the 400m relay. Picking up the baton in seventh place, Hartley had moved up to fifth by the final bend before surging through the field to grasp a bronze medal behind a world record-breaking East Germany team and the Soviet Union.

An achilles tendon injury forced Hartley to give up competitive running when she was only 27. She then went on to achieve prominence as a bodybuilder, to the general astonishment and occasional horror of those who had competed against her as an athlete. By then, her marriage to Bill Hartley had ended and she had begun a relationship with the Sheffield comedian and actor Bobby Knutt (real name Bobby Wass) whom she married in 1986 and who survives her.

Pumping her body weight up by more than two stones, Hartley won the Miss Great Britain Physique title of 1988 and was a runner up in the Miss International Bikini (Physique Class) of the 1988 Ms Universe competition. Thereafter, she slipped out of the media spotlight and ran fitness classes and a line dancing school near her home. More recently, she had been appointed a manager of the spa and leisure facility of a hotel and country club near Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Donna Hartley-Wass, athlete, born 1 May 1955; died 7 June 2013

This article was amended on 26 June 2013. In 1978 Hartley took the UK record for 200m from Sonia Lannaman, who was the holder at the time, rather than Kathy Smallwood, later Kathy Cook.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKugpL%2B1e5FpaGxnmqq7cH2RaJuopp6Weqmt0a2jnrE%3D