As a donation, we have received the personal notes of Jēkabs Vilsons (twelve-time Latvian cycling champion), in which he describes his sporting career over 13 pages, listing race dates, participants, and achieved results.
In addition, we have also received photographs taken in the 1930s.
A brief summary from J. Vilsons’ notes:
Jēkabs began his sporting activities in 1927, when students from Riga, who had come to the Summer Festival, organized a 1.5 km running race near the “Kāvūži” homestead. As a prize for winning, one of the students gave him a badge from the 3rd Latvian Olympic Games (1923) and said: “Boy, one day you will become a champion!” That same year, Jēkabs’ mother bought him a “Lepera” brand bicycle for 240 lats.
On June 20, 1930, he competed in his first road race in Class B over a distance of 20 km, finishing in 3rd place.
In 1932, Jēkabs was selected for the Latvian national team. In international competitions against Estonia at the Kalev track in Tallinn, he won the 1 km, 4×1000 m, and 10 km track events, as well as the 100 km road race. He also competed successfully against Lithuanian cyclists. Many Latvian championship titles were won in team races together with Arvīds Immermanis, Aleksejs Jurjevs, Hermanis Naumanis, Jānis Valcis, and Ludvigs Mednis. That same year, Jēkabs also earned the title of Latvian Champion.
At the opening competitions of the “Senču sila” velodrome in 1938, Jēkabs won first place in all five distances. He was coached by Stockholm Olympian Andrejs Apsītis, from whom he learned sprinting skills, especially the technique of throwing the bicycle forward at the finish. That year, Jēkabs became Baltic Champion in sprint and team racing.
In 1939, he competed in the “Rund um Ermland” race in Germany — a 168 km mass-start event (Latvia–Germany). During the race, he suffered two punctures, which resulted in a 6th place finish.
In his memoirs, J. Vilsons listed competitions held between 1930 and 1944, also naming other participants and their results.
Some of the photographs have been colorized. If you recognize any of the athletes shown in the photos, please leave a comment.
A more detailed account of Jēkabs Vilsons’ life can be found
in a 1990 article by G. Ķīšs:
periodika.lndb.lv
📸 Photo Gallery
Please note: copying, reproducing, or any form of use of the published photographs without written permission from the Cycling Sports Association “Latvello” is prohibited.
Comments, memories, and viewer discussions about these photographs can be found on the association’s official Facebook page under the respective post.
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