SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Angela Barnwell was one of Worthing’s youngest and most successful sporting heroes.
But nobody in the excited and admiring crowd of 5,000 welcoming her home in August, 1952, realised how easily her memorable sporting triumph could have ended in tragedy.
For a tram knocked down Angela only four days before she swam for Great Britain in the final of the women’s Olympic 100 metres event at the Helsinki Olympics.
She wasn’t placed but in no way did that dim her remarkable achievement of becoming one of the top 20 swimmers in the world.
Next day, the plane that brought Angela home to England was two-and-a-half hours late, but she made the 75-mile dash by car from Heathrow to Worthing in just over two hours.
But it was never to be. The fates intervened and Angela’s untimely death from cancer at a very early age meant she was never to realise her enormous sporting potential.