Bill Anderson (strongman)
Scottish sportsman
William Smith Anderson (6 October 1937 - 2 August 2019) was a Scottish Highland Games athlete. He won the World Highland Games Championships in 1981 and the Scottish Highland Games Championships 16 times. He also broke multiple world records and held every possible Scottish record in Highland Games.
Biography
Anderson was born on Greenferns Farm, Bucksburn, close to Aberdeen in Scotland. He began competing as an 18-year-old at Alford in 1956 and went on to compete at the top of his sport, excelling at caber tossing and Hammer throwing.
Highland games
Anderson dominated the heavy events for three decades, winning 16 Scottish championship titles as well as British, European, American, Canadian and World championships.
Anderson claimed his first Scottish title in 1959 and he became the first man to hurl the light Scottish hammer 150 feet in 1969 at the Lochearnhead Games. His distance of 151 feet 2 inches (46.08 m) remained unbeaten for 28 years.
His heavy Scottish hammer record with the wooden shaft thrown from a standing position, at 1969 Crieff Games which measured 123 feet 5 inches (37.62 m) stood for 14 years. The one and only time he threw the wire hammer was on national service in Aden in 1957 when with a standing throw he reached 133 feet 0 inches (40.54 m).
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Anderson (strongman)” 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.