The UK’s Channel 5 will be showing a shooting and strongman holiday on December 30.
Channel 5 traditionally airs the World’s Strongest Man competition over Christmas and New Year. But this time, their lineup is joined by a program that tells the story of the only track and field athlete to have won that mighty crown, Jeff Capes.
The documentary about Capes will be broadcast on December 30 at 8-9 p.m. The channel describes it as “a celebration of the life and legacy of one of Britain’s greatest sportsmen. Through the memories of friends, family and friends, this portrait follows Jeff Capes’ rise from poverty on a Lincolnshire farm to national glory, winning Commonwealth gold, two World’s Strongest Fighting titles.”
Capes died in October 2024 at the age of 75 after appearing in the pages of AW after appearing in the Spotlight on Youth column as a 16-year-old alongside boxer-turned-boxer Joe Bagner in 1966.
During his career, Cape won two European indoor shooting titles and two Commonwealth Games gold medals, in addition to three Olympics.
In total, he improved the British record from 19.56m to 21.68m, which he held between 1972 and 2003, and competed for the British a remarkable 67 times. At the height of his glory, the Crystal Palace shooting range was moved straight into the center of the house so that he would be center stage. A bona fide track and field icon, he would often start competitions in a tracksuit and then take it off in the fourth or fifth round when “he meant business”.
Amazingly, Capes was the youngest of five brothers and ran a 4:48 mile and competed in cross country in his early years. This running ability never left him in the throws either, as long before the Mondo Duplantis-Carsten Warholm sprint duel he beat Brendan Foster not once but twice in the exhibition 200m, first at Gateshead and then at Spalding.
Trained by Stuart Storey, Capes learned how to lift in Lincolnshire farm sheds alongside his father and eight siblings, before later combining a police career with his athletics and strongman triumphs.
In his long career, 1974 was his best season when he won the European indoor and Commonwealth titles and announced himself as a truly world-class thrower. However, his biggest throw ever came in 1980 when he threw 21.68m at Cwmbran. That year she went to the Moscow Olympics aiming to win a medal, but a back injury hampered her chances and she finished fifth.
Outside of athletics, he was a six-time Highland Games champion and won the World’s Strongest Man title in 1983 and 1985.
