By Rob Cole
Jeremiah Azu will bridge a 56-year gap in Paris when he becomes the first Welsh athlete to run in the 100 metres at the Olympic Games since Ron Jones in Mexico City.
Azu starts his campaign in the heats on Saturday morning and will be aiming to line-up for the final on Sunday night.
The first Welsh sprinter to crack the 10 second barrier, Azu ran in the footsteps of one of the 14 previous men to have held the title of the fastest man in Wales, Ron Jones.
Jones captained the British athletics Olympic team in Mexico City in 1968 at his second successive Games.
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He may have been 33 at the time, but he notched his fastest electronic time (10.42 sec) as he reached the quarter-finals.
His athletics career came to an end shortly afterwards, but what a career it was!
There were 28 Welsh records, 12 Welsh titles, three AAA 100 metre victories and a glorious part in the British sprint relay quartet that equalled the world 4 x 100 metre record at White City in 1963 in beating the Americans in a head-to-head battle.
There were Commonwealth Games and European Championship appearances and a 31 year reign as Wales’ fastest man.
Having taken the Welsh record off Ken Jones in Moscow in 1959, it took the exceptionally talented Colin Jackson to improve on his final mark of 10.42 sec when he ran 10.29 sec in Wrexham in 1990.
Azu has since taken the Welsh best down to 9.97 sec and he has achieved his Olympic dream at the age of 23.
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While he is only just writing his life story and creating his legacy, Jones’ many achievements have just been documented in his autobiography – ‘Running Through My Life’.
It is a heart-warming story of one of the most respected and feared sprinters of his era in British athletics. The coal miner’s son from Cwmaman learned to run on ragged roads and at Aberdare Grammar School.
He went from being the fastest boy at his school and in his valley to being one of British athletics fastest men.
On top of that, he took part in the world record equalling British sprint relay team that stunned the Americans in 1963 – joining John Disley (2 miles steeplechase), Steve Jones (marathon), Colin Jackson (110 hurdles) and fellow relay runner Berwyn Jones in setting a world record.
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At the recent event to launch the book – Ron died in 2021 at the age of 87 – one of his fellow world record equalling team mates, Peter Radford, spoke about his steadying influence on the group.
“Ron was older than us and he was the stable character who knew what to do and always wanted to get things right. He was incredibly tenacious and never, ever gave up,” said Radford.
“If you were running in a race and you thought you had it won with 10 yards to go to the tape, no you hadn’t if Ron was in the field. He brought the inspiration and we all learned from him.
“Relay running was a big part of his career and he had some great skills when it came to the event. We all know that relays can be chaotic and noisy, but he had an extraordinarily still hand.
“When you are going flat out, your team mate is trying to do the same thing and you are only inches away from other runners in the lanes alongside you, you need something fixed, stable and dependable to rely on.
“Ron’s hand was that. He always went on the check mark, his hand was steady as a rock and amidst all the chaos there it was – ‘plop’, the baton went into his hand and off he went.
“That wasn’t true of anyone else. Ron worked hard at it, he was steady and focused and one of the best at it.
“We never thought about the world record in that race against the Americans, what we wanted to do was beat them. You don’t get two teams battling it out side-by-side these days – it was like a boxing match, gladiatorial.
“We knew the Americans had Bob Hayes on their anchor leg. He was the best sprinter the world had ever seen up until that point and was the world record holder.
“What we wanted was to try and give Berwyn Jones a four-yard lead on the last leg.
“That meant we each needed to get a yard and a half up on our opponents in the first three legs, which we did.
“When the announcer gave the result of our race they said the winners’ had won in a time that was an English Native, British National and all-comers record of 40 seconds . . . which also equals the world record.
“We had to equal the world record of 40 seconds exactly just to beat the Americans. We looked at each other and thought ‘oh my lord, how did that happen?’ It was a golden moment in our careers.”
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There are so many golden moments shared in a book that was completed by Ron’s wife, Linda, and his long-standing friend, Welsh athletics historian Clive Williams.
The statistics section on Ron’s amazing career at the back of the book are worth the cover price alone (£14.99).
The tales from inside the British and Welsh athletics camps at those two OIympic Games and four Commonwealth Games encapsulate the amateur ethos of the age and you are left wondering just how much quicker Ron might have been able to run in the professional era with all the advantages of financial backing, training time, nutrition and physio back up and everything that has helped Azu reach the Olympic start-line in 2024.
But the book is about much more than his athletics career. It is about a life-long love affair with sport, with Wales and a dedication to helping young athletes achieve their goals through his work with SportAid Cymru Wales.
There are plenty of stories from his time working at Queens Park Rangers, Cardiff City and Portsmouth football clubs, and the creation of the Cardiff Blue Dragons rugby league team. Yes, Ron Jones was a true sporting all-rounder.
As current #Wales no.1 sprinter Jeremiah Azu prepares for #Paris2024 Olympics, the life story of former Welsh sprint legend and Olympian, Ron Jones is published today. Read more here: https://t.co/yk812mDzyL
— Welsh Athletics (@WelshAthletics) July 12, 2024
Lynn Davies, a friend, competitor and huge admirer of Jones, describes him as “an inspirational character on and off the track”. Davies never beat Jones over 100 metres.
“He will be remembered for being one of Wales’ greatest ever athletes. He was one of my heroes growing up, and when we raced I could never beat him.
“Remarkably, he did it all while he was working full time,” said Davies.
It is no wonder that Jones had two comic book heroes – one was the character in the Wizard named Wilson, who ran in the Olympic Games and had ambitions to lift a large heavy stone, and the other was Alf Tupper ‘The Tuff of the Track’, a character in The Rover.
Published by Y Lolfa, ‘Running Through My Life – Autobiography of the Record Breaking Welsh Sprinter Ron Jones’ is out now.
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