Welsh stars join athletics hall of fame

FIVE sporting greats have joined a distinguished list of track and field stars in the Welsh Athletics Hall of Fame.

Hurdling stars Matt Elias and Rhys Williams were among the athletes to be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at an awards dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff.

Commonwealth Games high jumper Julie Crane became the ninth female athlete to be bestowed with the honour.

Posthumous inductees included Olympic medallist Nick Whitehead and world sprint relay record holder Berwyn Jones.

During his international career, Cardiff-born Matt Elias won a gold medal at the European Championships in 2003 and finished fifth in the 4x400m relay at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

In 2002 he won two silver medals in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

An emotional Matt was presented with the honour by fellow Hall of Famer Christian Malcolm at the awards dinner on Saturday.

“It was an absolute honour to be inducted into the Welsh Athletics Hall of Fame, joining some legends of the sport in Wales,” Matt said.

“I’m so thankful to share the night with family and friends.”

High jumper Julie represented Wales at three Commonwealth Games – 1998, 2002 and 2006 – and represented Great Britain at the 2006 European Super League Final in Malaga.

The highlight of her career came in Melbourne in 2006 when she won the silver medal for Wales at the Commonwealth Games, clearing 1.88 metres. The honour was also given to Rhys Williams, from Bridgend whose achievements include being Europeans Youths, Under-20, Under-23 and Senior Champion in the 400m hurdles.

He also represented Wales at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The first inductee of the night was Olympic medallist Nick Whitehead, one of two 100m sprinters from the glory days of Welsh sprinting to be honoured posthumously.

Nick won medals at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, broke or equalled the Welsh 100 yards record seven times and went on to become the British athletics Olympic team manager.

He became the first director of the National Coaching Foundation in 1983 before returning to Wales to become the deputy director of the Sports Council for Wales. His family were present to collect his award.

Another posthumous award went to Berwyn Jones, from Rhymney, who ran in the relay team that equalled the world record on a very special occasion at the White City Stadium, London, in 1963.

Berwyn ran the anchor leg for the Great Britain team, holding off Bob Hayes of the USA to bring the team home in that world record time.

His daughter Helen Robbie was present with 16 members of Berwyn’s family to accept the award.

Helen said: “Dad’s older sister Mary, who is 91, was at the awards ceremony. Along with their older sister Mererid, she bought dad his first pair of running spikes from a shop in Birmingham where they both taught. It was lovely that she could be there.”