A WARD WINNER

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33445, 29 January 1974, Page 3

A WARD WINNER

Miss Mary Peters (above), winner of the Games pentathlon gold medal, was presented yesterday with an English award given monthly for outstanding achievement in any field. The 34-year-old Northern Ireland athlete, who will retire from international sport after the Games, was presented with the award by the manager of the English women's team, Miss Maria Hartman. Miss Hartman said that Miss Peters was the most popular athlete and sportswoman that Britain had produced. FOR TRACK The strain of competition behind her, Miss Peters was relaxed and poised when she appeared with other members of the Northern Ireland women’s i team and the bronze winner lor the pentathlon, Miss Ann Wilson (England).

She said that the “Toast of the Town” award—a cheque for £2so—would be deposited in the Mary Peters track fund, a reserve that should yield enough money to lay a synthetic track in Belfast early in 1975 “for the enjoyment of the youngsters of Northern Ireland.”

A competitor in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics, Miss Peters said that winning the prized gold medal was secondary.

“It is the fun, and friendship that comes out of sport that counts,” she said.

WINE LATER The novel part of the award will be presented when Miss Peters returns to Northern Ireland. A jereboam of French wine will be bottled for her in France by the sponsor of the award, Edouard Robinson, Ltd, distributor of Veuve Du Vernay. Recent winners of the award have been members of the Gallant Squad, who rescued the mini-sub-marine, Pisces III; Lester Piggott, for his victory on Rheingold in the Prix de L’Arc De Triomphe; and Captain Eric Grounds, best man at the wedding of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.