Geoff Capes obituary: shot-putter who became the World’s Strongest Man

The 'mighty figure' was a two-time Commonwealth Champion and world-record holder

Geoff Capes training, lifting two straw bales
At his peak, the athlete ate 12,000 calories a day
(Image credit: John Starr / Allsport / Getty Images)

Standing 6ft 6in, and weighing more than 26 stone, Geoff Capes was a "mighty figure who commanded international respect as a shot-putter", said The Guardian: he won gold in the Commonwealth Games in 1974 and 1978, and represented Britain at three Olympic Games; but in the 1980s, he became far more widely known as Britain's Strongest Man (a title he won in 1979) and the World's Strongest Man (in 1983 and 1985). Thereafter he was regularly seen on British TV screens tossing cabers, dragging lorries and ripping apart telephone books.

A frequent guest on "Record Breakers", Capes won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing a brick 146ft, said The Daily Telegraph. He won the World Highland Games five times, and was the Scottish Highland Games champion seven times. When he wasn't flexing his enormous muscles, he bred budgerigars. He had become interested in the birds in 1970s, when he was working for the Cambridgeshire police. Sent to arrest a man for non-payment of a fine, he noticed his collection of budgies, and over a cup of tea they had a "nice chat" about them. "It seemed a shame when, after the conversation ended, I suddenly remembered what I had to do," he recalled.

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