Tessa Sanderson interview: Queen invited me for lunch, but I thought it was a Jeremy Beadle wind-up

Tessa Sanderson is still the first and last British thrower to win any sort of Olympic title.

Sanderson was the first British black woman to win a field event at the 1984 Olympics .

She was made redundant within a month from her full-time job as an audio typist.

Sanderson ’s parents had settled in Wednesfield , just outside Wolverhampton , and instilled in their children the importance of education, learning about a new culture, resilience and an approach “so that you could live with all that was happening” Sanderson would excel in school sport starring at netball, hockey, tennis, hurdles and the long jump.

With the help of her schoolteacher Barbara Richards , and then coaches Wilf Paish and Brian Newman , she would develop into the best javelin thrower in Britain .

Sanderson and Fatima Whitbread were one of the greatest rivalries in the history of British sport.

Sanderson still thinks there was “so much unfairness” but is adamant that her career was enhanced by Whitbread .

Whitbread would never win Olympic gold, but she did add a silver in 1988 to the LA bronze.