Ben Jones

Competing in five separate events, involving a total of 11 races, the 1908 Olympic Games was a busy meeting for the Wigan collier, Ben Jones. However, with two gold medals and one silver, Jones provided to be Britain’s most successful rider of the Games. After taking second place in the 20km event, when he lost by the narrowest of margins to Clarence Kingsbury, Jones joined Kingsbury, Leon Meredith and Ernest Payne to take the gold medals in the team pursuit. He then won his third medal, and his second gold, in the 5 km. and after finishing second to Maurice Schilles of France in the 1,000 metres he was deprived of a fourth medal when the judges declared the race void after the pre-arranged time limited had been exceeded. Two weeks before the Games, Ben Jones won the NCU 5-mile title and his post Olympic successes including a silver medal behind Victor Johnson in the 1908 world amateur sprint championship at Leipzig, a second victory in the NCU 5-mile championship in 1910 and four wins at the South African championships between 1911 and 1914. Ben Jones began his cycling career with his local club in Wigan but he later based himself in the south and rode for Southwark CC and later Putney CC.