Story byAthletics Weekly published a photo of Hilary (centre) with the other two women who crossed the line first in the 1975 Barnsley Marathon [Tony Wood]Simon Thake - YorkshireSun, December 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM UTC·6 min readThe final group session for Barnsley Athletic Club before Christmas is a bitterly cold affair, with a handful of men and women wrapped up in long-sleeved fluorescent jackets, hats and gloves huddling together in the town's Metrodome Leisure Centre. As usual, the session is run by Dave Bennett, 77, who has been coaching at the club for over 50 years - and who, back in 1975, was responsible for a running revolution in Barnsley that changed the landscape for female runners across the UK forever. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAccording to a report from the time in the Barnsley Chronicle, on 30 November 1975 a total of 164 runners had lined up for only the second marathon in the town, but the headline news from the event was that six of the runners taking part were women - the first time that had happened in the UK. As race director, Mr Bennett had made the final call to allow women to take part, and while women's participation in such events would be utterly unsurprising today, he says that at the time it was "a big decision"."I think it was mainly the club committee and the members who decided, 'let's go for it'. I can't remember any objections," he says. Hilary King, formerly Matthews, now 72, has her trophy from the 1975 marathon on her mantelpiece in France [Hilary King]Today, members of Barnsley Athletic Club divide their sessions between the Metrodome and the Dorothy Hyman Sports Centre, the latter being named after the former Olympian who is from the town. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNow 84, Ms Hyman was a sprinter who won three medals at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics."Women were never allowed to run longer distances," she says. In the 1964 Olympics, the longest event in which women could take part was the 800m. In the US, women were not officially allowed to take part in marathons until 1972 when the Boston Marathon team accepted applications, and it was not until the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles that female runners could take part in the summer games. Ms Hyman admits she was "amazed" that Barnsley was the first to make history in the UK."It's brilliant because when I ran we didn't even have an athletics club in the town. I had to train in Thurnscoe."Dave Bennett (right) was the race director for the 1975 marathon, while his wife, Anne (left), volunteered as a marshall [Simon Thake]According to the Barnsley Chronicle's report from the event in Barnsley in 1975, the six women who took part competed for the "unofficial British women's championship crown". AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHilary Matthews, then aged 22, from Blackburn, was the first woman to finish the race. She did it in a time of three hours, 13 minutes and 27 seconds - a time which, as the Chronicle noted, "was faster than that clocked by 36 of the men". In fact, the previous day, she had also won the Lancashire women's cross-country championship. Now Hilary King, a retired PE teacher who lives with her husband in Toulouse and whose preferred sport these days is skiing, the 72-year-old says she vividly remembers that historic race in South Yorkshire."I drove over with my mum from Blackburn on the morning.
