by Ken Bennett

The IAAF World Championships was first held at Helsinki in 1983. It initially followed a four year cycle with subsequent championships being held in 1987 (Rome) and 1991 (Tokyo). After 1991 the championships were held every two years and the event held this year in Berlin was 11th .

The purpose of this paper is to examine the part played by Welsh Athletes in the UK teams competing at the IAAF World Championships.

How many Welsh Athetes should we reasonably expect to wear the Great Britain vest?  Based on the population of Wales (2,993,400) and the UK population overall (61,383,000),  Wales accounts for only 4.88%  of the total number of people in the UK.  On that basis we should reasonably expect 1 Welsh competitor for every 20.5 UK team members.

The total UK team at Berlin numbered 59 athletes although six, who were selected for relay events only, did not take part.  Using the population ratio of 1 to 20.5, Wales could have expected two or three athletes in the UK team. There were in fact two, David Greene and Rhys Williams who both competed in the 400m Hurdles

This was the second appearance in these championships for Rhys Williams who ran in the 2005 event in Helsinki. David Greene was competing in his first Senior Global Championship.

Looking back over the 12 World Championships a total of 26 Welsh Athletes (16 men and 10 Women) have taken part.

Only two have won individual medals. These are:

A further 4 Welsh Athletes won medals in the relay events:

In addition to Jackson and Tullett only seven other Welsh Athletes have finished in the top eight finalists in individual events. They are:

Number of Welsh Athletes competing in each World Championship and positions of the first eight finalists
® = Relay Event

List of Welsh Athletes competing in each World Championship and their positions.