ZOLA BUDD PIETERSE has signed up to run the Great Stirling Marathon next year, but event organisers will hope to avoid the kind of controversy that clouded her last race in Scotland.
Wendy Sly, Mary Decker Slaney and Zola Budd Pieterse at The Fall premiere
In 1985 she ran a mile at the Dairy Crest Games in Edinburgh, but the race was disrupted when a hooligan ran on to the track and sat on the inside lane, forcing Budd to run around him before the barefoot runner went on to win in 4:23.14.
She is likely to get far more cheers than jeers when she races in the inaugural Stirling event next year, though.
Now aged 50, she was in London last week with her old adversary Mary Decker Slaney (see p36) to promote a documentary called The Fall being shown on Sky Atlantic and in Picturehouse cinemas, while a new book by AW editor Jason Henderson called Collision Course has also been released on the two athletes’ lives and their infamous clash at the 1984 Olympics.