Sports 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.
Bridgend hurdling star Rhys Williams was 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 bestowed with the honour.
Posthumous inductees included Olympic med- allist Nick Whitehead and world sprint relay record holder Berwyn Jones.
Rhys Williams’ success included being European Youth, Under-20, Under-23 and Senior Champion in the 400m hurdles.
He also represented Wales at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games.
During his career, hurdler 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.
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 Common- wealth Games, clearing 1.88 metres.
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 became 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.
Another posthumous award went to Berwyn Jones, who ran in the relay team that equalled the world record 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 world record time.