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Profile - Marilyn Black
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Marilyn Black first came to attention in 1961 when she won the NSW 100y titles. She did not make her mark at a national level until the 1964 National Championships, when she gained selection in the Olympic 4x100m relay team. Regarded by some as the 'weak link' of the relay squad, the twenty year-old Black improved through 1964 and made the finals of the 100m and 200m in the Tokyo Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the latter event. She retired soon after the Games to marry Australian 400m star Peter Vassella. |
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Marilyn Black was just 16 in 1961 when, as a virtual unknown, she won the sprint double at the NSW Championships. Her runs of 10.4w (100y) and 24.6 (220y) were excellent performances, particularly for a girl of her age, and it looked as if Black might fill the void left in NSW sprinting since the retirements of Betty Cuthbert and Marlene Mathews the previous year. Black did not improve significantly over the next season and could not make the NSW team for the 1962 National championships. She did run in the trials for the 1962 Empire Games team though. There, she won her heat of the 100y, but she could not run a place in the final and a place in the Australian team for the Perth Games. In the following 1962/63 season, she ran consistently and earned a spot in the NSW National Championships team behind the resurgent Betty Cuthbert. Black made the final of both the 100y and 220y, but fifth in the shorter event was her best individual performance. She did win her first national medal though, in the 4x110y relay, with the NSW team. In the 1963/4 season, with Cuthbert concentrating on the 440y event, Black won the NSW State titles for 100y and 220y and was duly selected for the Australian Championships. Here, she achieved her best ever performance in the nationals, running third in both 100y (11.1) and 220y (25.0) - both races run into strong headwinds.   A bad start in the Olympic 100m may have cost her, but Black won bronze in the 200m Black was considered by some to be the 'weak link' in a potentially medal winning Australian 4x100m relay team at the Olympic Games. Other members of the team included Diane Bowering (Burge) who had won the 1963 National 100y title, Joyce Bennett - who won the 1964 Australian Championships at 100y and 220y, and Margaret Burvill, who had recently broken the world record for 200m/220y. In the lead-up to Tokyo, however, Black maintained and improved her form, whereas the Western Australian duo of Burvill and Bennett were well below their early-season form. Black's runs included a wind-assisted World Record time of 11.2 for 100m, just before the Games. As a result, Marilyn was confirmed as a starter in both 100m and 200m at the Tokyo Games. Running on the cinders track in Tokyo, Black showed brilliant form in the 100m. She won her heat in 11.58, which was the fastest automatic time ever record by an Australian women, and followed this up with an even faster time to win her quarter-final heat. Her time was somewhere between 11.40 and 11.49 seconds (and thus officially recorded as 11.4), but the photo-finish records are not available to check. In the semi-final, the next day, she ran a good second to the American Wyomia Tyus, and was considered a chance of a medal in the final. Black did not get away to a good start, however, and this probably cost her. Tyus ran away with the final, into a headwind which generally slowed times by 0.1 or 0.2, and Black finished sixth in 11.68; her slowest run of the competition. Black was considered to be a better short sprinter than a 200m runner, but ran well through the rounds of the furlong. She coasted through for second in her heat, but won her semi-final in a fast, wind-assisted, time of 23.42. In the final, she improved even further, to run a fantastic PB time of 23.18 which won her a bronze medal behind American Edith McGuire and Polish runner Irena Kirszenstein (Szewinska). Black finished her Olympic campaign with a fine run in Australia's relay team, which helped the team to sixth place. Within a few months, Black and Peter Vassella, who ran in the Olympic 400m final in Tokyo, married and retired from the sport. Black was aged only 20 and it is interesting to consider how she might have developed with a few more years of competition at the top level. Though she won an Olympic medal, she had not even managed to win an Australian Championship in her short career. Assuming that Black remained close to her 1964 form, she would have been very competitive, in national or Commonwealth Games events, for the next decade. The addition of a sprinter of Black's calibre to the Australian Olympic team in 1968 would have further enhanced an already strong sprint relay squad. Athlete Age at Mexico 100m 200m PBs Diane Burge 25 years 11.33 23.24 Marilyn Black 24 years 11.40 23.18 Raelene Boyle 17 years 11.20 22.74 Jenny Lamy 18 years 11.44 22.88 Thirty-five years later, an Australian relay squad of this standard would be highly regarded. In Mexico City, they would have been favourites for the Gold Medal. However, in the real world, Marilyn and Peter Vassella retired to raise a family. Their children, Nicole, Peter and Scott, are or were all national class sprinters in Australia during the 1990s, though none were able to equal their parents' achievements at an Olympic level. PERSONAL BESTS 100y 10.5 1 Sydney 04 Mar 1964 10.3w +5.2 1 Sydney 20 Dec 1964 100m 11.4e +1.2 1 Tokyo 15 Oct 1964 11.2w +4.7 1 Sydney 12 Sep 1964 200m 23.18 +0.8 3 Tokyo 19 Oct 1964 220y 23.7 1 Sydney 14 Mar 1964 440y 58.4 2 Sydney 06 Dec 1964 INTERNATIONAL HONOURS OLYMPIC GAMES 1964 100m 6F 1964 200m BRONZE 1964 4x100m 6F PROGRESSION 1961 1962 1963 1964 100y 10.8 10.9 10.7 10.5 10.4w 10.5w 10.3w 100m 11.4 auto 11.2w 11.2w 200m* 24.2 23.9 23.18 * 200m times may have been converted from 220y performances NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Nil |
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