Results Round Up

This week we have results to round up for you from Pembrey, Bucharest Romania and Chicago USA.

Saturday 12th October at a sunny Pembrey Country Park was the venue of the first John Collins Gwent Cross Country League fixture incorporating the West Wales Cross Country Championships. There was a very good turnout from the club’s juniors and seniors and in terms of both the Gwent league and West Wales Championships, some very encouraging individual and team performances.

The day starting with an excellent victory for Molly-Mae McQueen in the U11 girls race. Molly was followed home by Ruby Harvey-Flinn 18th, Matilda Warchal 23rd and Olive Knutson-Watson 27th to put our novice girls team in 3rd place overall. In total 23 girls from the club ran, not only ensuring B to F teams for the club, but making an important contribution in reducing the scores of opposing club athletes finishing below them. A great effort from all involved. Molly also took the gold medal in the West Wales Championships, well done Molly!

In the U11 boys race, the A team lies 7th with Jenson Achilleos 5th, Bowen Davies 23rd, Max Rankin 55th and Ellis Davies 64th. We had a further 5 athletes in the race making an important contribution to the overall team effort. Jenson also won the gold in the West Wales Championships.

At U13s, our girls lie 7th, with Emily Evans-Williams 14th, Rosie Jones 26th, Gwennan Gruffydd 31st and Ruby Underwood 51st. We had a further two U13 girls running from the club. Well done to Emily who also won a bronze medal in the West Wales Championships.

Our U13 boys also produced an excellent result with our A team in 3rd place, with Oliver Cobbold a very impressive 2nd, Isaac McAdie 10th, Tomi Jones 17th and Lucas Gibbs 20th. We again had sufficient athletes for a B team, C and D team. Oliver and Isaac won gold and bronze in the West Wales Championships respectively. Top racing from our U13 boys.

Our U15 girls are in 5th place with top performances from Lyla Jonsson 13th, Katie Evans 25th, Sienna Hurley 30th and Hannah Jones 34th. Another three girls from the club made up a partial B team. Lyla continued our West Wales Championship success by taking the silver medal.

Our U15 boys had a clean sweep of the West Wales medals with Osian Morgan gold (10th overall), Jack Griffiths silver 16th and Deri Jones bronze 27th. Sam Rees 29th made up the A team for the Gwent league and they lie 4th .

The best individual and team performances of the day belong to our U17 women, with 10 club athletes in total running, with 7 club athletes in the top ten placings, including the first four athletes across the line. The A team of Libby Hale 1st, Millie Gold 2nd, Holly Humphreys 3rd and Sioned John 4th top the league with our B team of Millie Pierce 6th, Ava Davies 8th, Olivia Morgan 10th and Chloe Hartley-Green 14th only bettered by our A team. An unprecedented set of results with Libby and Holly getting gold and silver respectively in the West Wales Championships.

We only had two competitors in the U17 men’s race, with Jack Sullivan finishing a creditable 17th and Lukas Armstrong 45th.

At U20 we had Hollie Lewis finishing 4th in the women’s race and no competitors in the men’s race.

In the seniors, it was our women who took the team honours. We are leading the women’s table with Gemma Tutton 4th, Joanna Callan 13th, Kristy Smith 28th on her return for the club Caitlyn Gwyther was 32nd and Maria Kowal 40th, giving the team an excellent start. Joanna also finished 3rd female master 35+. In relation to the West Wales Championships, Gemma and Kirsty took gold and bronze respectively in the senior women’s race and Joanna gold 35W masters.

In the men’s race, GB Junior International Dafydd Jones had a very impressive run to win the senior race as well as West Wales gold. Overall, however, the men are only 16th with Patrick Tudor 95th, Christian Cobbold 97th, Hywel Longman 111th and Alfie Robinson 135th making up the rest of the team. It is hoped the next Gwent Fixture incorporating the Cardiff Cross Challenge, will bring out more of the club’s top senior men. In terms of West Wales medals, other than Dafydd’s gold, Patrick Tudor took M35 silver, Martyn Hughes-Dowdle M55 bronze, and an excellent run from Alan Davies taking M65 gold.

Thank you again to all the athletes, coaches and team managers who contributed such a great set of results. The full team and individual results can be viewed here. We will try and stop our U15 to Masters teams being so shy of team photos next time!

Sunday 13th October Ifan Lloyd celebrated his 65th birthday in the best way possible by winning the gold medal in the M65 section of the World Masters Marathon in Bucharest, Romania. His time of 2:49:14 broke both the existing Welsh and UK M65+ records, (subject to ratification) the latter having stood for 34 years to Scottish athlete Hugh Currie with 2:51:39 in Greenock on 19 August 1990. Ifan even ran faster than the 2:49:32 he clocked as a 21 year old university student at the first London Marathon on 29 March 1981. Very many congratulations Ifan!

Sunday 13th October saw Sioned Howells set a new lifetime best for the Marathon of 2.46.12 in Chicago USA Sioned placed an amazing 59th, many congratulations Sioned!