Simon Jones, head coach of the British cycling team and architect of their great
success at the Olympics this summer, has been named Male UK Coach of the
Year 2004 at Sports Coach UK’s Coaching Awards 2004. The
prestigious award was made by HRH The Princess Royal on Thursday 2nd
December at the Café Royal, in the presence of numerous sporting stars
and sponsored by AT Kearney, one of the world’s largest
management consulting firms.
The Coaching Awards were presented by the Patron of sports coach UK, and former Olympian, HRH The Princess Royal who commented:
“I am pleased that the coaches of
so many of our outstanding performers are honoured at the Coaching
Awards ceremony. As well as the bedrock of success, coaching is also the
foundation of sport, this is the unique role that sports coach UK
contributes to sport and I wish it well for the future.”
Jones, who recently coached the Great Britain Men’s Endurance Cycling
Squad to three medals in Athens, has also been honoured with the
Mussabini Medal; an award which celebrates the contribution of coaches
to UK performers who have achieved outstanding success on the world
stage. He will be alongside other successful coaches being rewarded at
the ceremony including England cricket coach Duncan Fletcher and Olympic
hero Amir Khan’s mentor Terry Edwards. Sir Steve Redgrave and Matthew
Pinsent’s rowing coach Jürgen Grobler will also receive a lifetime
achievement award in honour of the fantastic work he has done over the
years with the hugely successful Olympians.
In addition to being the head coach of the Great Britain Cycling Team,
Simon is the personal coach to all the squad members including Bradley
Wiggins who collected the Individual Pursuit gold medal, together with a
silver medal as member of the Team Pursuit squad and a bronze in the
Madison, where he was partnered by Rob Hayes. This year, Simon also
coached the squad to two silver medals at the 2004 World Track
Championships.
Originally from Clevedon in Somerset but now living in Cheadle in
Cheshire, Jones has coached the squad to four Olympic medals and a total
of 10 medals at World Championships in the last five years.
One of Simon’s Olympic charges and silver medallist in the team pursuit, Paul Manning said:
“Simon deserves to win the award due to his dedication to British Cycling and
the drive he possesses to win at the very highest level of sport, namely
the World and Olympic Championships. I feel Simon has been instrumental
in the continued success of the riders of the Great Britain Cycling
Team.”
Links
