Lillian Board was one of the greatest female athletes of her generation, despite a career significantly curtailed by her death from cancer. She received an MBE in the Honours' List at the start of 1970. By Boxing Day that year she was dead, just 13 days after her 22nd birthday.

She won 400m silver at the 1968 Olympics, and two European Championship golds the following year, at 800m and the 4 x 400m. She anchored UK relay quartets which set four world records at three distances: 4 x 110 yards, 4 x 400m, and 4 x 880 yards. She also set 11 UK records.

Her versatility was unique. She represented Britain from 100 to 800 metres, and ranked second on the UK all-time list at 1500m only behind former world record-holder Anne Smith. Granted a full career, there's no saying what she might have achieved.

Board was denied Olympic 400m gold in the altitude of Mexico by French woman Colette Besson. She'd taken the lead off the bend, but was caught just on the line, though she set a UK record of 52.12. Beaten by nine-hundredths, she said if she had been "better developed", she'd would have won.

The next year, in Athens, she stepped up to 800m and won what is still Britain's only female gold in that event at the European Championships. She was ranked only eighth going into the meeting but set a championship record of 2:01.5. Two days later, she anchored a GB 4 x 400m team which included Scotland's Commonwealth 800m champion Rosemary Stirling. She was eight metres behind her nemesis, Besson, on hitting the home straight, but caught her. Both teams were given the same time, a world record, but Board got the verdict and gold for Britain.

Her talent had first been spotted by her PE teacher when she was an 11-year-old at school in Ealing. At 14, she won the English Schools long-jump title and finished the year as best in Britain for her age.

She was trained by her bricklayer father, George, with advice from Olympic long-jump champion Mary Rand. When she made her 400m debut, at 17, her time was the fastest ever by a European at that age (54.6). That was in 1966, and it's worth noting that just 14 years later, 16-year-old Lynsey Macdonald, from Fife, ran 51.16 to win the women's senior title at the AAA Championships.

Board went to the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, finishing fifth aged 17, but the next year she became a household name when she beat the world 400m record-holder, Judy Bullock, in a Commonwealth v USA match in Los Angeles. Board burst from last to first with what was to become a trademark strong finish. Her time of 52.8 was the second-fastest ever by a European. She also won the European Cup final 400m in Kiev. The British Athletics Writers' Association named her female athlete of the year.

In Olympic year she had the world's best time at 400m, won the 200m for Britain (23.5) against West Germany; and finished second in the 800m at the WAAA Championships as European champion Vera Nikolic set a world record (2.00.5). She anchored a UK relay team to a world 4 x 110 yards record (45.0).

Pert, blond, and a bubbly extrovert, she was the Golden Girl of the sport. A talented dressmaker and designer, she often made her own clothes, including the pink coat she wore to her MBE inauguration at Buckingham Palace.

She had contributed to a world record at 4 x 800m in Edinburgh in June of 1970, despite suffering from stomach pains. These had become so intense by the Commonwealth Games on the same Meadowbank track a month later that she had to withdraw.

Initially, Crohn's Disease was diagnosed, but this was revised to bowel cancer following a colostomy. She attended the controversial clinic of Dr Josef Issels, near Munich, where she later died. Some 20 months later, team-mates were horrified on the eve of the Munich Olympics to be taken on a day trip to that clinic as part of a sight-seeing tour. Athletes on the bus wept.

The path from the Olympic Stadium to the subway there is called Lillian Board Way. When Britain's Becky Lynne won 800m bronze in Gothenburg last year, she dedicated the medal to Board's memory.