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Bill Adcocks

Olympic athlete

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ861895
Source-derived summary

William Arthur Adcocks (born 11 November 1941) is a British former long-distance runner who competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Biography

He was introduced to athletics at his primary and secondary schools – at secondary school he competed in both cross-country and track and field. He started at school at the age of 12.

He works as an information officer for UK Athletics.

He wrote a book about his marathon performance in Greece in a book titled "The Road to Athens". (ISBN 0954789601) He was invited to start the Athens Classic Marathon in 2002.

Athletics career

He joined the Coventry Godiva Harriers at the age of fourteen.

In 1964, he ran his first marathon, in Port Talbot, finishing second in a time of 2:19:29.

In 1965, he won the Amateur Athletic Association of England title in the marathon, held in Port Talbot, beating nearest rival Brian Kilby by over 40 seconds.

In 1966, he represented England and won silver medal in the Commonwealth Games marathon, finishing 5 seconds behind Scotland's Jim Alder.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bill Adcocks” as olympic athlete. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1968, 2002, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-11-11. The account is most persuasive where Bill, Adcocks and Olympic can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as olympic athlete. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q861895. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1968, 2002 and 1964.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bill Adcocks”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bill Adcocks primary sources, Bill Adcocks archive and Bill research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Bill Adcocks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.