Helen Golden, b. Edinburgh, 16 May 1953. Club: Edinburgh Southern Harriers. Top female Scottish sprinter of the 1970s reaching 3 Commonwealth Games and finishing fourth on four occasions.

Helen Golden is probably Scotland’s best athlete never to win a Commonwealth medal, starting in no fewer than eleven events over three Games (1970, 1974 and 1978) and finishing fourth in four of these. She has held the national 100 metres record of 11.40 seconds since 1974 and the native 200 record of 23.14 since 1973 in a long and successful career during which she was coached exclusively by George Sinclair.

As a 16-year-old, she represented Great Britain at the European Championships in Athens, a feat which was to be matched 11 years later by a famous Fifer Linsey Macdonald, who ran for Britain in the 400 metres at the same age in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Helen Golden was a headline-writer’s dream, truly the “Golden Girl” of Scottish athletics.

First coming to prominence in 1967, when she topped the Scottish under-15 100 yards rankings, the Trinity Academy pupil took the Scottish under-17 title the following year; but it was in 1969 that she arrived at the top, unleashing a brilliant series of performances which no one in Scotland could match, taking the WAAA intermediate and Scottish senior titles over the new 100 metres distance for which she set the inaugural national record of 11.9. At 200, with a best of 24.5w, she competed in invitation races at the Great Britain v France men’s international. On the Saturday, running as a guest in the pentathlon, she ran a legal 23.9, backed up the following day by a windy 11.9/23.8. These runs saw her added to the British team for the European Championships in Athens for the 200 and 4x100. She did not make the final relay team but her runs of 24.2 and 24.3 saw her miss qualifying for the final by one place. It was her first senior international.

In May 1970, she ran 11.5w and 11.3w, the latter time taking her to the top of the UK lists, just 14 days after her 17th birthday. At the WAAA championships in June, she ran Scottish record times of 11.8, 11.7 and 11.6 in successive rounds for a bronze medal. In her opening race on the first day of the Commonwealth Games at Meadowbank, she ran a windy 11.47 behind Olympic medallist Raelene Boyle (Australia) in the heats of the 100. 11.54w in the semi-final took her and Liz Sutherland (11.55w) to the final, where she was 2nd Briton home in 5th place in 11.52w. Runs of 23.49w and 23.59w took her to the final of the 200, where she went one better in fourth place in 23.42w. Fourth was repeated in her 7th race of the week, the anchor leg of the 4 x 100 relay, where the team of Pat Pennycook, Liz Sutherland, Anne Wilson & Helen ran 45.46 for a native record that still stands to this day. In Budapest for the Europa Cup 4x100 final, injury to the selected athlete saw her called up as replacement at two minutes’ notice for the individual 200. From the outside lane, she ran a Scottish record of 23.7. As Cliff Temple reported: “A personal best would have been good anyway; in the circumstances, it was brilliant”.

1970 had been an incredible year, but it was to get better. At the European Junior Championships in Paris, she finished third in the 100 metres on day 1 in 12.23, into a 4.1 metre per second headwind. The following day, she equalled her own Scottish record of 23.7 in the semi-final but in the final faced a 5.2 metre per second headwind in the straight. Helen ran the bend hard then held on to her 2 metres winning margin in the straight to take the gold medal in 24.34. Her consistently high performances as the top British sprinter included the European Junior 200m title in Paris and a Native record of 23.7 for that event.

An anti-climactic season followed although it did include a notable 200 win for Britain in a senior match against West Germany at Crystal Palace, and in 1972 Golden was again Scotland’s top sprinter, setting a national record of 23.6 for Britain against Poland in Warsaw. Her form drifted however and she failed to make the British team for the Munich Olympics. In 1973, the Edinburgh Southern Harrier won the WAAA 200 title gaining selection for the Europa Cup final at Meadowbank. In that race, Helen fulfilled all her promise, setting a UK record of 23.14, beating three top-class sprinters, and finishing third, just a stride behind the great Renate Stecher. She could not retain the form for the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, held in the awkward time of January 1974, going out in the semi-finals of both sprints in 11.92 and 23.93.  However, the 1974 summer season left no doubt who was number one as she regained both Scottish titles and made the national records her own.  She twice clocked the world-class time of 11.2 for 100 and a hand-timed 23.0 for 200, and at Meadowbank in July, she broke 23 seconds running away from the field in the GB v Czechoslovakia international to win by around 7 metres in a windy 22.97. In Rome at the European championships, she finished 5th in the 200 in 23.38, behind such greats as Stecher and the winner, Irena Szewinska.

While she remained Scotland's top sprinter in 1975, Golden slipped somewhat in the international standings but the 1976 season included a well-deserved Olympic 200 selection for Golden who was disappointingly below her best in Montreal and survived only one round. After missing the 1977 season, Golden returned for one more season in Commonwealth year. She returned virtually to her best in the 200, coming within 0.03 seconds of her Native record with a windy 23.17 in her Edmonton heat before placing sixth (23.28w) in a closely contested final. She gained a final Great Britain international appearance, the 30th of an outstanding career.

She was a good club member giving full support in both League and Cup events and was a valuable member of Edinburgh Southern Harriers’ 4 x 100 metres relay teams that set Scottish records, their time of 45.2 still standing to this day.

Perhaps the best tribute comes from John Anderson, the Scottish national coach when Helen came on to the scene: “She was a great sprinter and a fantastic competitor, but the nicest person you could wish to meet off the track – it just proved that you don’t have to be a nasty person to succeed”.