Gwenda Matthews

Gwenda Matthews won the WAAA junior high jump title in 1958 and and also won the inaugural WAAA Best Junior Athlete of the Year Award that year. She retained the junior title in 1959 and 1960, and in the second of those years was also the English Schools intermediate champion. Matthews never won a senior WAAA title but was third in the high jump in 1964 and 1967, and had two podium finishes in the pentathlon in 1965 and 1966, when the winner each time was Mary Peters. Matthews also won two silver and two bronze WAAA Indoor medals between 1963-71.

Matthews took part in the Tokyo Olympics but narrowly failed to make the final jump-off. She did reach the final at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica, however, when she finished sixth. Matthews joined the London Olympiades Athletic Club in the 1970s.

Personal Best: HJ – 1.72 (1964).