Bill Roberts (athlete)

Bill Roberts (actually William Roberts, born April 5, 1912 in Salford, Lancashire, now part of Greater Manchester, † December 5, 2001 in Timperley, Greater Manchester ) was a British sprinter.

In the British Empire Games in London in 1934, he was starting for England in 48.5 s second over 440 yards behind Godfrey Rampling.

1936 Roberts was fourth in the 400 - meter race at the Olympic Games in Berlin. He lay with his personal best of 46.87 s to 0.03 s behind the third-placed American James LuValle. In the 4 x 400 - meter relay, the Americans renounced the use of LuValle and the Olympic champion Archie Williams. The British were at full strength with Freddie Wolff, Rampling, Roberts and the Olympic Second Godfrey Brown and had in goal with 3:09,0 minutes, two seconds ahead of second-placed Americans. Roberts ran in this race 46.4 seconds, the fastest of all part-time relay runners.

In the British Empire Games in 1938 in Sydney Roberts won gold over 440 yards ( 47.9 seconds ) and silver in the 4 x 440 yards relay team behind Canada. After serving in World War II in the Royal Air Force, Roberts joined in 1946 at the European Championships in Oslo back in and finished fifth over 400 meters in 49.5 seconds. As a finisher of the season, he won silver behind France in 3:14,5 sec.

At the Olympic Games in London in 1948 Roberts served as captain of the British athletics team, but failed in the quarterfinals over 400 meters. In the relay, he left in the flow.

From 1935 to 1946 he appeared eight times in countries fighting for the United Kingdom in the 400 -meter run. He won six of these races and was second twice behind Godfrey Brown.

Bill Roberts was 1.83 m tall and weighed 78 kg in his playing days. After his career, he took over the family furniture business and wrote a regular column in the Manchester Evening News.