Geoff Capes: Gold-medal winning shot putter, World's Strongest Man and TV legend dead at 75

Capes was born in 1949 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, the seventh of nine children, and as a youngster became a member of Holbeach Athletic Club, where he was coached by Olympic hurdler Stuart Storey, and represented his county in basketball, football and cross-country.

He worked as a coalman and an agricultural labourer after school, his official biography on the Geoff Capes Foundation saying he earned a reputation for “being able to load 20 tons of potatoes in 20 minutes” before joining Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 1970, where he served for a decade.

Capes’ first Commonwealth title came at Christchurch in 1974, a gold medal he defended four years later in Edmonton.

He also enjoyed great success at the European Indoor Championships throughout the 1970s, claiming two shot put golds, three silvers and a bronze to go with an outdoor bronze in 1974.

He represented Great Britain at the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics, achieving his best result of fifth at his final Games in Moscow, where he ended his career as an amateur athlete and turned professional.

That May he set the British record with a 21.68m throw in Wales, which remains the best ratified effort from a British man, and seven years later placed first in the World Strongman Challenge.

Capes went on to become a coach for many young athletes and for a time mentored the England Athletics shot put team.

Controversy came briefly in 2010 when two of his athletes were provisionally suspended from competition after being charged by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) following their alleged refusal to take drugs tests.

Capes was relieved of his mentoring role with England Athletics, but a UK Athletics spokesperson told Inside the Games their organisation was not planning to take any action against the coach.

Capes was also a successful Highland Games athlete, setting records in several disciplines.

An animal lover since his youth, Capes was a renowned budgerigar breeder, serving for a spell as president of the Budgerigar Society.