Researching Christopher Williams

Williams is best known for winning the silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2001 World Championships. In 2001 he was named Jamaica Sportsman of the Year. Williams has competed in the Olympic Games three times, in 2000, 2004 and 2008, reaching the semi-finals of the 200m on all occasions. He was on the bronze medal-winning 4 x 400 metre relay team at the 2000 Olympics. He finished seventh in the 200m final at the 2007 World Championships.

Williams represented Jamaica at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the 200 metres and placed third in his first round heat after Brian Dzingai and Christian Malcolm in a time of 20.53 seconds. He improved his time in the second round to 20.28 seconds and placed third again, this time after Dzingai and Walter Dix. He ran his semi final race in 20.45 seconds and placed sixth, which was not enough to make it to the Olympic final.

At school he taught himself to play the trumpet and gained a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, aged 16. He then became Head of Brass teaching at Wells Cathedral School and a tutor at Dartington College of Arts. In 1980 he left the UK to teach at the Cairo Conservatoire, Egypt, working with Samha El-Kholy, and was principal trumpet of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Here he became interested in disadvantage and poverty, and taught at the Al Noor Wal Amal School for blind children. In 1985 he broke the cultural boycott of South Africa to be a principal trumpet with the PACT (SABC) Symphony Orchestra, to experience apartheid. He taught music in the Alexandra, Gauteng township, and co-founded the Johannesburg-based education NGO for street-working children, Street-wise, with Jill (Swart) Kruger. This became the topic of a PhD, his 'first degree'. He then held Fellowships from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation concerning disability rights, and the Economic and Social Research Council within the Global Environmental Change Programme.