Rhys Williams (born 27 February 1984), is a Welsh professional

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete, specializing in the

400 m hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, onc ...

. He is a previous European champion in the event.

Early life

Williams was born in

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

, the son of former Welsh international rugby union player J.J. Williams. Rhys studied at

Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari Ysgol Llanhari is a Welsh-medium school for 3-19 year olds situated in the village of Llanharry, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. History Llanhari is one of the Welsh medium secondary schools in the area, having opened in 1974. It followed Ysgol Gyf ...

from September 1995 until June 2002. He was a member of the Bridgend and District D.C. Thomas winning rugby side at the age of 11 and was also the Welsh U15

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

swimming champion. He is currently studying for a master's degree at the

University of Glamorgan The University of Glamorgan () was a public university based in South Wales, that merged with University of Wales, Newport to form the University of South Wales in April 2013. The university was based in Pontypridd, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with ...

Athletics career

Williams won the 400 m hurdles at the 2005 European U23 Championships, was European Junior Champion in 2003, and won the European Youth Olympics in 2001. On 10 August 2006, Williams won the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

European Championships in Athletics The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics (sport), athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions F ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

in a time of 49.12 seconds, thus just slightly missing his personal best (49.09, set at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, where he finished fourth). He also ran 48.3 over the 400 m (2002). On 13 August 2006 at that same event, he won a silver medal in the 4 × 400 m relay as the second sprinter, along with Robert Tobin, Graham Hedman and Timothy Benjamin, in a time of 3:01.63. On 31 July 2010, he achieved the Silver Medal in the

at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, with fellow Welshman Dai Greene winning Gold.

Injuries

On 17 June 2008 it was announced that he would miss the 2008 Olympics due to a stress fracture to his right foot. He suffered the injury while taking part in the Welsh Championships two days earlier, which was the first time he had competed since suffering a similar injury a year earlier.

Doping violation

On 25 July 2014, on the second day of the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

where he was co-captain of the Welsh team, it was announced that he was suspended from all competition because of a doping violation at the Glasgow Grand Prix on 11 July. In January 2015

UK Anti-Doping UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is the organisation responsible for protecting sport in the United Kingdom from doping. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and is structured as a company limited by guarant ...

gave Williams a four-month suspension, whilst accepting that Williams' positive test was due to taking a contaminated supplement and that he had not knowingly cheated. As Williams had already been suspended for more than six months the decision meant that he was free to compete again.

Personal bests

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Rhys 1984 births Living people Athletes from Cardiff Welsh male hurdlers Welsh male sprinters British male sprinters Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Wales Commonwealth Games athletes for Wales Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games People educated at Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari Team Bath track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Great Britain European Athletics Championships medalists Welsh sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics AAA Championships winners Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games 21st-century British sportsmen Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics