Nineteen-year-old Cecil Griffiths of Surrey AC is the only British junior track & field athlete to have won an Olympic gold medal. Although illness forced him to withdraw from the individual 400 metres at the 1920 Olympics, he ran a brilliant opening leg in the 4x400 metre relay, handing over to Robert Lindsay well clear of the rest of the field. This enabled Britain to avoid the melee involving Sweden, South Africa, France and the USA at the first change-over and the team went on to a comfortable victory.

Cecil Griffiths finished third in the AAA 440 yards three times but in 1922 he decided to concentrate on the half-mile and developed into a remarkably consistent performer. From 1922 to 1927 he never finished out of the first three at the AAA Championships, winning the title in 1923 and 1925. This record, when taken with his earlier performance at 440 yards, meant that he was placed in an AAA Championship event for nine successive years.

Griffiths’ great race was at the 1926 AAA Championships when the German Otto Peltzer and Douglas Lowe both beat James “Ted” Meredith’s world record of 1:52.2 seconds. Griffiths finished a commendable but almost unnoticed third in an estimated 1:53.4 seconds which, had it not been for Lowe finishing ahead of him, would have been the fastest half-mile ever run by a British athlete.

William Hill = 100m+200m

Full name: William Arthur Hill 
Gender: Male 
Born: October 31, 1896 
Died: 1958 
Affiliations: Surrey Athletic Club 
Country: Great Britain 

After war service in France and the Middle East as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, he won both sprints at the AAAs. He was again a finalist at 100 y1920-22 and 220y 1920-21. He was also a member of the Surrey AC team that won the AAA medley relay in 1922 and 1923. After some fine early seasons performances he was expected to do well at the 1920 Olympics but was eliminated in the semis of the 100 and quarters of the 200. He played football (soccer) for Bromley AFC and for Crystal Palace in the London Combination.