Allan ROBINSON

Allan Robinson began as a bodybuilder and won a section of the Mr. Great Britain competition in 1953. Concentrating on weightlifting he became British champion and was selected to represent England at the 1958 British Empire Games at Cardiff where he placed fifth in the 60 kg class. It was as a bantamweight (56 kg) that he was selected to compete for Great Britain at the Rome Olympics of 1960 but he failed the make the required weight and was forced to compete in the 63 kg class instead. He struggled against the larger men and could only place 18th of the 22 lifters who posted a weight. At one time Robinson ran a gym in the Lancashire town of Darwen and also worked as a plumber.