Cross Country

Well done to the 9 Eryri Harriers who once again battled the weather running for North Wales at the Inter-regionals in Builth Wells on Saturday.
Gethin Davies, running for the U15 boys, came in a strong 30th and helped the North Wales team to 3rd position. In the U17s mens race, Ryan Owen also ran brilliantly coming in 11th in a strong field of 35 runners, bringing the North Wales team an amazing gold medal! Annabelle McQueen was also 14th in the U17 women’s race – brilliant efforts from all of our younger athletes!
Beckie Taylor ran very well and was a 11th overall in the Seniors/Masters Womens race of 87 runners, with Tammy Lewis-Jones coming in 24th (2nd WV45), Helen Blair coming in 34th (6th WV45), Annie Williams coming in 59th (19th, running in the WV45 category) and 3rd team overall, fantastic! In the Men’s race, Richard Roberts also had a fantastic run coming in an amazing 6th overall, with Dewi Owen also running very well, coming in 31st in a field of 117 runners!
Well done everyone for making the trip down and for your efforts on the day!Full results here: http://www.welshathletics.org/media/957312/ir-xc-2015-results-programme.pdf

Well done to all 27 Eryri Harriers who braved the mud, rain and wind of Mold XC – if you’ve forgotten what it was like, it wasn’t a day for standing around and chatting, but it was a fantastic day running-wise! Brilliant results and even better to see people who have been away for a while due to injury, back running in their vest – fantastic!
We had an amazing turnout, for both the men and women. In the ladies race, Andrea Rowlands (11th), Beckie Taylor (12th), Annabel McQueen (14th) and Becki Law (18th), followed very closely by Tammy Lewis-Jones (21st), Helen Blair (26th) and Annie Williams (37th). Was great to see Lou Beetlestone coming in a solid 38th, back after a chest infection, Sandra Rowlands in 43rd also back after foot problems and Ellie Salisbury (51st) nursing an injured collar bone – you guys are troopers! Brilliant also to see Alison Donnelly (76th), Alex Fletcher (81st) and Maggie Oliver coming in at 91st.
Also churning up the fields in the first race of the day was 1st V70 Don Williams who was 52nd, Ryan Owen who was 3rd and Steffan Williams who was 6th (U17).
The men’s race was fantastic with Rob Samuel winning the event outright, looking ever-strong also after injury, and making the mud look like smooth tarmac! Similarly, it was great to see Rich Roberts (also nursing a few niggles) who had a great run coming in at 4th and Dewi Owen a fantastic 16th! Matt Fortes paced it well and came in a strong 26th position followed by another injury-beater Adrian Williams (34th). In his first cross-country this season, Sam Green had a strong run coming in 42nd , with SPJ in 44th and fresh from Dubai! Huw Owen, Arwel Lewis (83rd) and Paul Hodges (97th, 1st cross country EVER!) packed well with the Steve Ll Jones coming in 141st (how many XC’s have you done Steve!?).
So, the all-important team results…Eryri ladies are still first in the seniors and masters, with the men’s team maintaining second and the master’s mens team are 5th – well done everyone!
Next fixture is on Saturday 16th January at Walford College, Baschurch, Shewsbury, SY4 2HL. A minibus will be going, more details to follow nearer the time. Cheers and have a wonderful festive season and the rest of the XC season too – I’ll be back in April and the wonderful Maggie Oliver will be keeping things going whilst I’m away too. See email: maggiealwyn@gmail.com 

Huge well done to Gethin Davies, Annabelle McQueen, Ryan Owen, Steffan Williams, Bronwen Jenkinson, John Spill, Becki Law, Hayley Turner, Beckie Taylor, Adrian Williams, Owen Roberts, Richard Roberts, Dewi Owen, Rob Samuel, Matthew Roberts, Andrea Rowlands, Megan Hughes, Helen Blair, Tammy Ddrwg Lewis-Jones, Ellie Salisbury, Annie Williams, Sandra Rowlands and last but not least Arwel Lewis who have all been selected to run for North Wales at the Welsh Inter-regional Cross Country Championships in Builth Wells on 12th December – not everyone selected is able to run (please let me know either way if you haven’t already) but fantastic achievement for all and good luck to everyone on the day!

After some fantastic running in North Wales at the weekend, the next fixture of the cross country league at Mold Alun School, Mold is this Saturday 28th November! Usual programme of events, with juniors in the morning (registration from 9.30am), 1st senior race at 2pm (all ladies, U17 Men, M70’s) and second senior race at 2.45pm (Senior Men and Masters Men). Free to run if you wear your vest and you are a first claim member.

Please come along to support your club and the league – remember everyone is welcome, of every standard and everyone makes a difference. Eryri ladies are first in the seniors and masters, with the men’s team also second and the master’s mens team have moved up to 5th! You need to make it to 4 out 5 fixtures to count for an individual placing 🙂

Very well done to Stephen Jones (SPJ) and the rest of the Welsh Masters team at the British and Irish Masters cross country last weekend. We are very lucky to have a few words from the man himself, see below, brilliant effort and well deserving of a proper Guinness – first Welshman home and 13th/20 in a field of some of the best V60 runners from across the UK!

‘The course at Santry Park in Dublin was very wet and muddy last Saturday but it suited me and I hoped it would slow down some of the faster road runners. However, after a fast start the pace continued to be fast and I was left towards the back of the field with the other Welsh runners in the Vet60 category – we were in a race where the age group was 50-65 so most of the men in our race were younger and faster. I kept up a reasonable pace but the standard of runners was very high which wasn’t really surprising as it was an international race and included some of the best runners in GB and Ireland so I didn’t manage to pass anyone until the very last 100ms when I managed to catch and pass a Scottish Vet60. So I finished 13^th out of 20 and although I was first for the Welsh V60s I was a bit disappointed to be so far back – more speed training needed for next year!

It was a great weekend and there was really good team spirit amongst all the teams. The standard of competition is very high and I would encourage anyone aged over 35 and interested in top class competition to think about having a go at qualifying for this event next year. I’m sure that we have a number of runners within Eryri who are capable of qualification for the Welsh team and it would be good to see more individual medal winners and hopefully some more Welsh teams getting into the top three.’

Full results are available from the following link (see Statistics tab):

http://bmaf.info/index.asp

Well done Steve!

NEXT CROSS COUNTRY FIXTURE IN NWXC LEAGUE – NOTE DIFFERENT VENUE TO LAST YEAR

Saturday 28th November, Mold Alun School, Mold, CH7 1EP

Junior races in the morning, Ladies race 2pm, Mens race 2.45 – please come and support your club!

Cross-country section report for AGM

Last year kicked off to a flying start (very much like this year!), with a fantastic turn-out at the first fixture of the North Wales Cross Country league at Treborth playing fields. Fantastic efforts from a total of 23 women and 24 men who ran for Eryri at this and the other 4 fixtures last year meant that Eryri Harriers won overall club, 1st senior ladies and 1st masters ladies teams , 2nd men’s and 4th men’s masters teams (narrowly missing out on a podium position). Everyone deserves a medal for their contributions! There were some outstanding individual league successes too including Andrea Rowlands (2nd senior lady, 1st FV40), Don Williams (1st MV70), Louise Emery-Jones (2nd FV35), Megan Hughes (3rd FV35) and Maggie Oliver (2nd FV65). In the men’s, Fred Maier was 2nd senior man, Owen Roberts was 2nd under 20, with SPJ and Arwel Lewis 2nd and 3rd in the MV55 category overall. Many thanks to Paul Jenkinson, Maggie Oliver and Stuart Macdonald who held the fort whilst I was in France, helping to make sure we had teams to the last two fixtures in Telford and Oswestry amongst many other things!

Eryri Harriers were also well represented in the selections for last years Welsh inter-regional and masters championships in Builth Wells. SPJ was already showing his current strengths and was 1st in the MV60-64 category. In a race with over 100 runners, Dylan Jones had a fantastic run coming in at 13th overall and 3rd in the MV40-45 category. Helen Blair, Sandra Rowlands and Ellie Salisbury worked hard to bring home 1st team prize for Eryri. Some of our younger runners including Michael and John Spill, Annabelle McQueen, Steffan Williams, Owen Roberts also ran well representing North Wales. Bronwen ran well to finish 7th in the U20 category.

In the North Wales Cross Country championships there were some fantastic team results with Eryri coming 1st in the Senior Men’s, Senior Ladies and Masters Ladies categories and 2nd in the Masters Men’s category! Andrea Rowlands had a great run coming in second lady, with Bronwen Jenkinson 5th (1st under 20) and Megan Hughes 2nd FV35, Sandra Rowlands 2nd FV45, Ellie Salisbury 3rd FV50 and Maggie Oliver 2nd FV65. In the mens race John Spill was third in the under 17 race with Steffan Williams continuing to improve a little further back. Don Williams was crowned over 70’s champion, SPJ the over 60 champion, Arwel Lewis over 55 champion, Owen Roberts won the u20 mens race while Daniel Kashi was second male overall and Hugh O’Donnell was second over 35.

Twelve Harriers also competed at the Welsh Cross Country Championships. Annabelle McQueen was 18th in under 15 girls, Bronwen Jenkinson got her first ever medal at the Welsh Champs and was third in the under 20s. New recruit Lauren Jeska finished second in the senior women’s race behind Llandrindod’s Ffion Price. In the men’s races Mike Spill ran solidly to come 14th in the under 13 race while John Spill was fifth in the under 17s and Steffan Williams was 18th. Owen Roberts was fifth in the men’s under 20 race which was won by GB International Jack Hopkins. In the senior men, Richard Roberts finished sixth with SPJ coming a fine 20th leaving many youngsters in his wake, Ben Beachell was 23rd, a resurgent James McQueen 40th and Mike Blake 50th.

Eryri runners represented North Wales at the fantastic British Inter-Counties XC Champs at Cofton Park, Birmingham including Richard Roberts who had a good run to make the top 100 finishing 92nd and Daniel Kashi in 218th. Bronwen Jenkinson was 55th in the under 20 category and John Spill was 97th. Two Eryri Harriers represented the club at the British Masters XC champs – very well done to Don Williams who finished 7th MV70 and 96th of the 138 finishers (including masters ladies and MV65’s and Arwel Lewis who was 72nd overall out of 142 finishers in the Male Masters 35 to 64 category and 11th MV/55 (2nd Welsh). In Antrim, Northern Ireland, Bronwen Jenkinson represented Wales in the IAAF Cross-Country, incorporating the Home Countries International, Bronwen finished 31st in the under 20’s race.
Last year was fantastic with runners representing Eryri, North Wales and Wales all over the UK, and this year is looking fantastic too, let’s pull out all the stops and keep it going, well done to EVERYONE who has run, helped or both!

See link below for further information, the Welsh Cross Country Relay Championships are on Sunday 22nd November in Bridgend.

http://www.welshathletics.org/news–media/news/cross-country/2015/october-2015/entries-open-for-the-welsh-cross-country-relay-championships.aspx

Teams of 3 for women’s teams and teams of 4 for men’s teams. Please let Becki Law (bex85@msn.com) know by Friday 13th November if you are interested in making up part of a team.

Selection for the British Masters Cross Country International – Welsh Squad
Well done to Steve Jones (SPJ) and Maggie Oliver!

Two Eryri athletes have been selected to be part of the Welsh squad in the British Masters Cross Country International in Dublin on 14th November. SPJ has accepted his selection to run in a couple of weekends time and Maggie is a reserve athlete and so will be on call should she be needed! It really is fantastic to have our athletes representing at this high level, having both shown a high level of commitment to the sport over the years – well done and good luck to them both!

Well done everyone at the last cross-country! On a weekend where Eryri runners were representing all over the place (great work everyone!), we managed to field a men’s team (just!) – it’s 6 needed to count, with penalties if not, and we had John Spill, SPJ, Neale Lewis-Jones and Arwel Lewis, then Mike Blake reluctantly dragged his vest on (star!) and then Craig Jones appeared, bounding down the steps with minutes to spare! The race started and we noticed first-time XC runner Dewi Owen out in front having a very strong run… well done Dewi but sorry Mike! Very well done also to John Spill who came in a brilliant 2nd overall, followed by Dewi in 12th, Craig Jones, SPJ, Arwel Lewis, Neale Lewis-Jones and Mike Blake. Great efforts!

In the ladies race, Becki Law, Annabelle McQueen, Tammy Lewis-Jones, Helen Blair were first four home, closely followed by Annie Williams, Ellie Salisbury, Alison Donnelly, Becca Roberts and Maggie Oliver – well done ladies, fantastic running all round, cheering included (it was so good that Dave Williams said he had a phone call from Penmaenmawr about the noise disturbance!). Also running in the same race, Steffan Williams had another great run coming in 11th, with Don Williams and Alwyn Oliver (first XC race for 25 years!?) coming in 66th and 78th.

Many thanks also to Jen Charlton and Joe for their now expert help at the finish, hopefully back running again soon though!

OFFICIAL OVERALL RESULTS ARE NOW IN

In the team standings, Eryri ladies are still first in the seniors and masters, with the men’s team also second and the master’s mens team have moved up to 5^th! Brilliant! Very well done again to everyone who ran on Saturday, we have maintained our competitive standing because of you!

Other notable individual performances not mentioned above include:

SPJ who was 1^st M60, Don Williams and Alwyn Oliver who were 1^st and 3^rd Over 70’s

Tammy Lewis-Jones and Helen Blair who were 1^st and 2^nd FV45, Annie Williams who was 1^st FV55

See link for full results: http://www.northwalesxc.com/

Next event is in MOLD, NOT WREXHAM on 28th November, further details to follow but Mold is actually closer than Wrexham so that’s good too!