William de Gruchy (born 10 May 1930) is an Australian former athlete who specialised in

sprinting Sprinting is running over a short distance at the top-most speed of the body in a limited period of time. It is used in many sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal, or avoiding or catching an op ...

Biography

A Western Australian athlete, de Gruchy was raised in the Perth suburb of

Mount Hawthorn Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

. De Gruchy studied at both St Patrick's Boys' School and

Aquinas College :''See also List of institutions named after Thomas Aquinas'' Aquinas College may refer to any one of several educational institutions: In Australia *Aquinas College, Perth, Roman Catholic boys' R–12 school *Aquinas College, Adelaide, residenti ...

in Perth. In 1950, de Gruchy represented Australia at the

British Empire Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

in Auckland, where he won a silver medal in the 100 yard sprint and was a member of the gold medal-winning team. De Gruchy won the national 100 yard sprint title for the only time in 1951, edging three-time champion John Treloar. He was overlooked in favour of John Treloar for the

1952 Helsinki Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. At the 1952 WA state championships, de Gruchy ran the 100 yard sprint in a wind assisted 9.6 seconds.

References

External links

William de Gruchy Results
at

Commonwealth Games Australia Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) is the Commonwealth Games Association for Australia, and is responsible for representing and promoting the Commonwealth Sport movement in the country, and organises the participation of athletes at the Commonwea ...