“Geoff was an inspiration to so Many people expanding up, a man whose outstanding achievements and character remaining an enduring mark on the toughness Local community. His legacy will keep on to encourage another technology of strongmen and athletes world wide.
Capes, who died this week aged 75, also gained two European indoor shot set titles and two Commonwealth Game titles gold medals during a stellar throws profession. On top of that, he competed in three Olympic Games.
As a strongman, Capes grew to become a domestic identify in Britain and lots of portions of the planet.[seventeen] He was significantly known for his unbelievable hand and arm strength, very easily tearing London phone directories in half and bending rolled steel bars measuring about one inch in diameter, and three ft in duration. Capes turned totally Qualified in 1980, the Olympics in Moscow being his previous celebration being an novice athlete.
In that Telegraph job interview previous yr, Capes said: “There have been more powerful individuals in existence – I fulfilled plenty of them within the fens of Lincolnshire.
Offered the amount of foodstuff Capes necessary to maintain his pounds, the wage he acquired through the police was essential to his athletics vocation. At his peak, Capes’s each day diet regime consisted of a box of cereal, seven pints of milk, two tins of pilchards, a few cartons of cottage cheese, two loaves of bread, a leg of lamb, two steaks, a dozen eggs, a pound of butter, a pint of orange juice, a tin of baked beans, a jar of honey, a grapefruit and two tins of tuna. “I under no circumstances genuinely try to eat good quantities,” he as soon as explained. “It’s just constant.”
He was one of many favourites for gold at both equally of his latter tournaments but finished sixth and fifth.
In retirement, Capes turned a mentor of various successful shot putters and was president on the Budgerigar Modern society. His youngsters, Lewis and Emma, were being also national shot place champions and the family tradition is at this time becoming ongoing by grandchildren Donovan and Lawson.
"They bring about out my gentler facet." At the height of his breeding career, he owned in excess of three hundred budgies. He constructed a small picket aviary behind his home and organized meals for them Each and every early morning.[six] Capes routinely appeared in the webpages of Cage & Aviary Birds. He took up the pastime every time a policeman, owning chatted for an hour to a man he needed to arrest for non-payment of the great.[24]
Capes retired from Skilled sport in 1994 aged 45. From then on he turned his awareness to business, Operating like a director of his possess gymnasium after which you can a security company and appearing as an right after-supper speaker. He was also involved with nationwide charity get the job done.
An animal lover due to the fact his youth, Capes was a renowned budgerigar breeder, serving for a spell as president on the Budgerigar Society.
Geoff Capes leaves behind a legacy as Just about the most decorated and influential energy athletes in record.
Reigning British shot place winner Scott Lincoln stated he was The person who set the Activity “around the map in the united kingdom”, introducing: “An icon, hero, legend, function design, Mate and all-round excellent dude. Will be sorely missed by not merely me but a great number of around click here the athletics Neighborhood.”
We had been delighted to have the ability to recognise all of Geoff's excellent achievements at our Corridor of Fame and his legacy will carry on to encourage and impact athletes of right now, and the longer term."
Capes explained himself to be a troubled youth and recalled that he was regularly battling. "If the following city arrived down with a Friday and there were only eight or nine of these, I might say, 'Return and get some a lot more'", he instructed The Daily Telegraph in 2023. "I'd battle them by myself. I had been fairly peaceful but there was an internal aggression." Inspite of his organic inclination to physical actions, Capes to begin with struggled to uncover achievement in sports activities. He confronted a just one-calendar year ban from a local football group right after placing a referee all through a match. He remaining school at 14 to work as being a labourer, carrying sacks of potatoes and taking up a variety of odd Work opportunities.[six] Within the age of fifteen, he loaded twenty tons of potatoes onto a lorry in under 20 minutes, just to show that it could be carried out. By 16, he had taken around the part of assistant coalman and odd-work employee for just a haulier in Lincolnshire.