Philippa Roles

Philippa Kate Roles OLY (1 March 1978 – 21 May 2017) was a Welsh discus thrower who competed at two Olympic and four Commonwealth Games. Roles was British junior athlete of the year – an honour presented at Buckingham Palace. She was the first British discus thrower to medal at junior European level; and narrowly missed out on a medal at under 23 level, finishing 4th. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Born in

Southern as a train driver on services in South London. She represented Swansea Harriers at club level. Proudly Welsh, she was a popular member of Team Wales and Team GB due to her sense of humour and self-deprecating manner.^[1]

Her personal best throw was 62.89 metres, achieved in June 2003 in Loughborough. This placed her third on the British outdoor all-time list, behind Meg Ritchie and Venissa Head. It also ranked her in the World top 20.^[2]

On 16 July 2008, Roles appeared as Jonny Saunders' guest in the feature "Who's in the Locker, Cocker?" on Chris Evans Drivetime on BBC Radio 2.^{[citation needed]}

She was 5 ft 10 inches tall and weighed 88 kg.

Roles died suddenly and unexpectedly on 21 May 2017 aged 39.^[3]^[4]

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing Great Britain and Wales
1995	European Junior Championships	Nyíregyháza, Hungary	12th	44.84 m
1996	World Junior Championships	Sydney, Australia	16th (q)	46.48 m
1997	European Junior Championships	Ljubljana, Slovenia	3rd	50.62 m
1998	Commonwealth Games	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	6th	54.10 m
1999	Universiade	Palma de Mallorca, Spain	15th (q)	54.82 m
1999	European U23 Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	4th	55.37 m
2001	Universiade	Beijing, China	6th	55.02 m
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, England	4th	57.65 m
2004	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	18th (q)	58.83 m
2006	Commonwealth Games	Melbourne, Australia	6th	58.38 m
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	27th (q)	57.44 m
2010	Commonwealth Games	Delhi, India	4th	57.99 m