Northern Ireland athlete also won Empire Games and European gold and held the world record

Thelma Hopkins, the 1956 Olympic high jump silver medallist and 1954 European and Empire Games champion, died on January 10 aged 88.

Born in Kingston Upon Hull, she moved to Belfast in Northern Ireland as a child before later living in Canada for many years.

In 1954 she won high jump gold and long jump silver when representing Northern Ireland at the Empire Games in Vancouver – the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games.

Later in the same summer, she won the high jump title for Britain at the European Championships in Bern.

Hopkins broke the high jump world record on May 5 in 1956 with 1.74m at the Cherryvale Playing Fields in Belfast and six months later won Olympic silver in Melbourne, sharing the runner-up position with Mariya Pisareva of the Soviet Union, as the duo finished behind winner Mildred McDaniel of the United States.

Hopkins also played hockey for Ireland, earning 40 caps, in addition to representing the country in squash.

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