Ken Jones (athlete)

Ken Jones

Player information
Full name	Kenneth Jeffrey Jones
birthday	December 30, 1921
place of birth	Blaenavon , Wales
date of death	April 18, 2006
Place of death	Newport , Wales
society
society	Career ended
position	Outer three-quarters
Clubs as active
Years	society	Games (points)
	Talywain	()
1945-46	Blaenavon	()
1945-46	Pontypool	()
1946-58	Newport	294 (443)
1948-49	Leicester	1 (0)
National team
Years	National team	Games (points)
1947-57	Wales	44 (51)
1949-56	Barbarians	5 (12)
1950	British and Irish Lions	3 (6)

Ken Jones (athlete) medal table
athletics
Wales United Kingdom
Olympic Summer Games
silver	1948 London	4 × 100 m
European championships
silver	1954 Bern	4 × 100 m
Commonwealth Games
bronze	1954 Vancouver	220 yards

Ken Jones (actually: Kenneth Jeffrey Jones ; * December 30, 1921 in Blaenavon , † April 18, 2006 in Newport , Wales ) was a British- Welsh sprinter and rugby - right outside three quarters . With 44 appearances for the Welsh rugby union national team between 1947 and 58, he was at times world record national player in rugby and is considered the best all-round rugby player Wales' of all time, as a track and field athlete he won the 4 x 100 meter relay One silver each at the Olympic Games and the European Athletics Championships.

athletics

Jones served with the Royal Air Force in India during World War II , where he became Indian Sprint Champion in December 1945. In 1946 he was the first Welsh champion over 100 m and 200 m , he was able to defend both titles until 1954 with the exception of 1950, and set four Welsh national records. At the Olympic Games in London in 1948 , Jones failed over 100 m in the semi-finals. With Jack Archer , John Gregory and Alastair McCorquodale , he was only beaten by the United States in the 4 x 100 meter relay. He only took part in two other international championships, both in 1954: at the European Athletics Championships in Bern , he won silver again with the British relay (Jones, George Ellis , Kenneth Box and Brian Shenton ), at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver he was team captain of the Welsh team and won bronze over the middle sprint distance (220 yards).

rugby

Jones played briefly for Pontypool RFC and Blaenavon RFC after World War II before moving to Newport RFC in the summer of 1946 . For the club he scored 146 attempts in 293 games . His first appearance for the Welsh national team he had in 1947 against the English rugby union national team , for Wales he played 44 times in ten years. Among other things, he succeeded in a Grand Slam at the Five Nations in 1950 and 1952 , and in 1953 he made the decisive attempt in Wales' last victory against the All Blacks . However, he was captain of the Welsh team only in one test against Scotland in 1954. In 1950 he was nominated for the Australasia Tour of the British and Irish Lions and completed three more test internationals against the All Blacks for them.

Others

Jones was a teacher during his active sports career, and after his retirement he became a tire dealer. He also worked for the Sunday Express as an expert on rugby and athletics. Until 1995 he was president of the Newport Athletic Club , which also included the Newport RFC , for five decades , but then resigned under protest because of the professionalization of rugby union.

In 1960 Jones was inducted into the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in the early 1990s .

Web links

• Ken Jones in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Rob Cole: Ken Jones. Wales's greatest all-rounder. In: The Independent . April 21, 2006, accessed March 16, 2011 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ken Jones. December 30, 1921 - April 19, 2006. In: The Times . April 22, 2006, accessed March 16, 2011 . 
3. ^ Former Wales wing Ken Jones dies. In: BBC Sport . April 19, 2006, accessed March 16, 2011 .