after Rand won the gold medal, her roommate Ann Packer won the 800 metres. Packer 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." Rand was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1965 New Year Honours for services to athletics and voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1964. After Tokyo, her training was less intensive, but she won a gold the long jump at the 1966 Commonwealth Games. Due to injury, she failed to make the 1968 British Olympic team and retired in September that year. Rand also held the world record in the triple jump from 1959 to 1981; it was unofficial as a world record in the women's triple jump was not recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations until 1990. There is a plaque commemorating the world record long jump (6.76 metres) by Rand at the 1964 Olympic Games in the Market Place in Wells. She was succeeded as Golden Girl of British athletics by her friend and London Olympiades club-mate, Lillian Board. In 2009, Rand was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame. On 26 January 2012 Wells awarded her the Freedom of the City, following a campaign started by Wells resident Tony Williams. Personal life Around 1960 Bignal dated Dutch decathlete Eef Kamerbeek. In 1961 she met rower Sid Rand. Three days after meeting she agreed to marry him and they married five weeks later. They had a daughter, Alison. The marriage lasted five years. In December 1969, she married her second husband, American Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympics' decathlon champion. This marriage lasted 22 years and they had two daughters, Samantha and Sarah. She later married John Reese and lives with him in Atascadero, California, in the United States. She holds dual UK/US citizenship. References External links British Pathe film: Mary Bignal Rand 1961 British Pathe film: Home Town Cheers Mary Rand 1964 Grainy video of her receiving BBC Sportsview Personality of the Year Award 1964 1940 births Living people People from Wells, Somerset English female long jumpers British female long jumpers British pentathletes British female triple jumpers English female triple jumpers English female hurdlers British female hurdlers Olympic athletes of Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Athletes