Mary Green

At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, 400 metres runner Mary Green had two familiar faces to keep her company. Fellow members of the Great Britain athletics team were her brother, the 10,000 metre runner Mike Tagg, and all-rounder Ann Wilson, who had been a pupil of Green’s during her time as a physical education teacher at the Southend High School for Girls. In the crowd also, unbeknown to Green and Tagg, were their parents who had secured a bank loan to pay for their trip to Mexico.

Green attended the Thorpe Grammar School in Norwich and, along with her brother, joined the great Yarmouth Athletics Club where they were coached by Tom Parke. Mary finished third in the WAAA 440 yards in 1963, and was runner-up to Lilian Board in 1967. She then went to the 1968 Olympics having finished third behind Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen (Netherlands) and Janet Simpson at the WAAA 400 metres. Unfortunately, at Mexico, Green was eliminated in the 400 semi-final and had to watch from the stand as Board won the silver medal.

Mary married fellow athlete Andy Green in 1965, having first met some years earlier at the English Schools Championships, and then again at the National Training Centre at Lilleshall. A middle-distance runner at the time, Green was the first man to run a sub four-minute mile in the north of England, at Blackburn in 1964. After the Mexico Olympics, they concentrated on starting a family and they had two sons, David and Michael, who both took up running.

Mary became president of the Southend Athletic Club, and she and Andy established the Southend 10K and set up the Castle Point Joggers. Andy passed away in 2020, two years before Mary

Personal Best: 400 – 53.64 (1968).