British Olympian and World’s Strongest Man, Geoff Capes, dies age 75

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Geoff Capes, a three-time Olympics competitor for Great Britain in the shot put, has died at the age of 75.

The Lincolnshire-born athlete featured at Munich in 1972, the ‘76 Montreal Games and four years later in Moscow, while he also won gold for Britain twice at the Commonwealth Games and on a further two occasions at the European Indoor Championships, all during the 70s.

In addition to his athletic endeavours, Capes was a strongman competitor and after the culmination of his shot put career focused on the World’s Strongest Man - eventually being crowned winner on two occasions, in 1983 and 1985.

A family statement read: “The family of Geoffrey Capes would like to announce his sad passing today, 23rd October. Britain’s finest shot-putter and twice world’s strongest man.”

During his career, Capes was a multiple British, Commonwealth and European champion in shot putt and set a national record of 21.68m in 1980 which still stands.

That record made him one of the favourites heading into the Moscow Olympics in 1980 as he looked to improve on his sixth place finish from Montreal four years earlier. However, things didn’t go to plan and he came eighth, deciding in the aftermath to switch focus to the strongman competition.

He competed in six competitions throughout the 1980s and never once finished outside of the top three with his best performances culminating in victories in 1983 and 1985.

Capes also delved into the Highland Games and became a six times world champion, first winning the title in Lagos in 1981.

In retirement he continued to be involved in shot put as a referee, event promoter, and coach while also winning a world title for breeding budgerigars.

His children, Lewis and Emma, were also national shot putt champions as are his grandchildren Donovan and Lawson.

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