Mary Rand, widely regarded as Britain’s greatest ever female athlete, was born and brought up in Somerset, writes Phil Hill.

Ms Rand, who has died aged 86, became the first British woman to win three medals at an Olympic Games.

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After smashing the world record to take gold in the long jump at Tokyo in 1964, she then won silver in the pentathlon and bronze in the 4X100m relay.

That year, she was BBC Sports Personality of the Year and was awarded the MBE in the 1965 New Year Honours.

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She was born Mary Bignal in 1940 and spent her early years in Wells, the city of her birth, where her mother was a nurse and her father a chimney sweep and window cleaner.

Her earliest memories of running were around an orchard in Wells.

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At the age of 16, she won a sports scholarship to Millfield School, by which time she outperformed the country’s top high jumpers at an Olympics squad training camp.

Despite excelling at all sports and winning national school titles, she was expelled from Millfield.

The school’s founder and Somerset County cricketer RJO ‘Jack’ Meyer frowned on her decision to travel with a former pupil to Paris, where the couple became engaged.

Ms Rand, who had won long jump silver at the 1958 Commonwealth Games and competed at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, later married British rower Sidney Rand.

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She won long jump bronze at the European Championships in 1962, four months after giving birth to the couple’s daughter, Alison.

Following her triple Olympic triumph in 1964, she won long jump gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.

But her career was ended by a leg injury aged 28, leading to her missing Olympic selection in 1968.

Ms Rand married twice more, firstly to USA decathlon Olympic champion Bill Toomey, with whom she had two more daughters, Samantha and Sarah, and secondly to John Reese.

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Following her athletics career, she lived in California and later Nevada.

A spokesperson for UK Athletics said it was “saddened to hear of” the death of Mary Rand, “who blazed a trail for women in the sport”.

Ann Packer, who roomed with Ms Rand at the 1964 Olympics, where she won the 800m, later said: “Mary was the most gifted athlete I ever saw.

“She was as good as athletes get.

“There has never been anything like her since and I don’t believe there ever will.”