Di Coates

In 1949, at the age of 17, Di Coates left school having been a good standard high jumper. When her club, Oxford Ladies Amateur Athletic Club, had no throwers for an upcoming match, however, she helped out and won the javelin and discus, and came second in the shot. By the end of the year, Coates had won the Southern Counties and WAAA junior javelin titles and set an unofficial British record, which was not ratified due to it being wind-assisted. She also won the WAAA junior shot title that year.

Coates eventually broke the 13-year-old British javelin record in 1950 in retaining the WAAA junior title. She broke the record on several more occasions that year, including three times in one day at the Southern Inter-Counties Championship at Aylesbury.

Coates became the first woman to win three consecutive senior WAAA titles between 1950-52 and added a fourth in 1955, as she became the first woman to win it on four occasions. Additionally, she became the first British woman to throw in excess of 130 (39.6m), and then 140 feet (42.7), setting a new personal best 147-7½ (45.30) at the 1952 Championships. At the Olympics that year, she qualified for the final with her first throw, but could only finish in 15th place. Had she equaled her personal best set at the WAAAs the previous month, she would have made it to the final six in Helsinki.

Coates studied for three years at the Chelsea College of Physical Education in Eastbourne between 1949-52 and then became a games mistress at a school in Wellingborough, before moving to a similar post at a Kettering in 1954.

Personal Best: JT – 45.30 (1952).