Sue Williams

Despite earning a reputation as a freestyle swimmer, Exter’s Sue Williams’ first major title was in the girls’ 110 yards butterfly at the 1965 Western Championships. The following year, she finished third in the girls’ 110 yards freestyle at the national championships at Blackpool, and also captured the senior ASA 440 yards medley title.

Williams became the British and European 400 metres freestyle record holder after swimming a 4:45-6 at an international meeting at Coventry in 1967, and a few weeks later she won three ASA titles (220, 440 and 880 yards) but finished second as she lost her medley title. Suffering from a throat infection during the 1968 season, second place in the 220 was her best ASA finish that year, but in 1969 she regained the 440 and 880 titles.

Williams went to the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica, and reached the 440 yards freestyle and 440 medley finals, missing out on a medal by 1/10th of a second in the latter. On her way to the final, however, she smashed Anita Lonsbrough’s Games record. Also in 1966, Wiliams took part in the European Championship at Utrecht but was disqualified in her heat of the 400 metres individual medley.

Williams went to the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, and in between those Commonwealth Games appearances went to the Mexico Olympics and competed in all three individual freestyle events and the 4x100 freestyle relay. The only final she reached was the relay, when GB finished seventh.

After attending St. Luke’s College, Exeter, Williams qualified as a schoolteacher. Williams made history in 1967 when, in the final of the girls’ 220 yards freestyle at the national championships at Blackpool, she shared the title with Shelagh Ratcliffe in the first ever dead-heat in an ASA final.