New Zealand athletes prepare for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. Among the athletes featured are Olympic gold medallists Yvette Williams and Murray Halberg.
The sports writer Peter Heidenstrom rated Yvette Williams as his 'New Zealand Athlete of the Century'. There is no doubt that she was one of our greatest-ever athletes - and probably the most versatile. There were few events for women in track and field in the 1950s but Williams excelled at most of them.
Yvette Williams performs a long jump in front of the Queen during the Invercargill Agricultural show on 29 January 1954.
Commentary
'Yvette Williams...world's record holder for the women's long jump'.
New Zealand's first female Olympic medallist, Yvette Williams (now Corlett) won gold in the long jump with an Olympic-record leap of 6.24 m (20 feet 5 and 3/4 inches).
Two years after winning the long jump gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Williams set a new world record of 20 feet 7 1/2 inches (6.29 m) at an athletics meeting in Gisborne.
