UK Sportshall finals

N WEST WALES BOYS WIN BRONZE AT NIA

The under-13 boys from NorthWest Wales put up a great display at the UK Sportshall finals at Birmingham's NIA, where they were representing Wales.

 They claimed seven top 10 positions, with pride of place going to the 4 x 2-lap relay team. They qualified for the final as joint fourth fastest overall and then improved their time in the final by 0.8 seconds to earn bronze medals.

 Steffan Jones was the highest placed individual, finishing fourth in the vertical jump with a best leap of 60 centimetres. Olly White was fifth in the standing long jump with a best of 2.35m and Guto Owen was sixth in the 4-lap final.

 Other team members were Ifan Roberts, Matthew Jarvis and Iwan Davies.

Blackpool Marathon/Half

FORD GETS PB "AT HOME"

Veteran John Ford (NWRR) returned to his native Lancashire for the Blackpool marathon and came away with a pb.

 He finished fourth overall and second M40 in 2-49.09.  Third vet and 14th overall was Aaron Nicholas (Eryri) in 2-57.32, while Dyfed Whiteside Thomas (also Eryri) set a pb of 3-06.53 in 40th place.

 Other North Wales placings included: 98 Steven McCormack (Abergele) 3-26.24 and 207 Richard James (Wrexham) 3-44.22 (pb).

 In the Blackpool Half David Millington (Wrexham) was 37th in 86.43, Jon Evans (NWRR) 198th in 1-41.25 and Thian Thomas (Eryri) 403rd in 1-52.52.

Wrexham 10k

WESTON WINS 10K IN NEW PB

 Wrexham's Daniel Weston took 10 seconds off his pb winning the inaugural Wrexham 10k in aid of Nightingale House Hospice.

 He finished 42 seconds clear of the fast-improving Andrew Edwards (Deestriders), with evergreen Gary Norgrove third.

 Wirral's Sarah Kearney took the ladies' title, with fellow-veteran Isabel Redfern second.

 RESULTS

1 D Weston (Wrex) 33.08, 2 A Edwards (Deestriders) 33.50, 4 G Norgrove (Wrecsam Tri, M45) 34.20, 4 S Williams (ua) 34.28, 5 P Evans (Wrecsam Tri, M40) 35.38, 6 A Campbell (Wrecsam Tri) 35.42.
 M40: 2 J Taylor (Wrex) 37.30, 3 J Thomas (Cybi) 38.36
 M45: 2 G Owens (Osw) 39.23, 3 K Roberts (NWRR) 40.45
 M50: 1 A Lewis (Eryri) 38.11, 2 E Reid (Abergele) 41.54, 3 J Treggett (ua) 43.09
 M55: 1 R Freeman (ua) 40.36, 2 B Brown (Wrex) 42.24, 3 A Gauton (Denbigh) 42.32
 M60: 1 G Nixon (Prestatyn) 40.21, 2 B Wilson (Ludlow) 42.28, 3 M Ollier (Wrex) 45.58
 M65: 1 JG Evans (Aberystwyth) 45.23, 2 M Beech (ua) 62.07
 M70: 1 Roger Harrison-Jones (Prest) 51.08, 2 D Phillips (ua) 51.32, 3 M McDonald (N Vets) 62.24

Ladies

1 S Kearney (Wirral, L35) 38.23, 2 I Redfern (CB, L40) 39.55, 3 E Collins (Denbigh, L50) 41.07, 4 L Morley (Wrex, L40) 43.39, 5  D Holl (ua) 44.43, 6 C Birch (Abergele, L65) 45.24.
 L35: 2 H Bainbridge (ua) 51.34, 3 E Birse (ua) 53.33
 L40: 3 R Court (ua) 51.08
 L45: 1 S Jones (ua) 48.54, 2 M Meadowcroft (ua) 51.52, 3 S Edwards (ua) 52.40
 L50: 2 J Nicholls (ua) 51.49, 3 H Massey (ua) 55.29
 L55: 1 J Green (ua) 55.29, 2 J Kember (ua) 57.20, 3 W Evans (ua) 70.01
 L60: 1 G Graham (Whitchurch) 53.42, 2 D King (ua) 56.23
 L65: 2 A Jones (ua) 57.40

Chester Spring 5

VETS SET THE PACE AT CHESTER

Eight of the first 10 finishers  and 14 of the first 20 in the Chester Spring 5 were vets as the race again attracted a quality field.

 Deeside's Lee Jones was third overall and was first M40, two places ahead of Christian Prior (Chester Tri), from Prestatyn, who was third last year.

 The first woman home was Helsby's Jayne Joy, who came home 21 seconds ahead of Elizabeth Renondeau (Tattenhall).

 Results

1 R Burney (Liv H, M35) 25.45, 2 D Nicholls (Wilmslow) 26.00, 3 L Jones (Deeside, M40) 26.10, 4 W Neill (Stoke) 26.23, 5 C Prior (Chester Tri, M35) 26.32, 6 M Walker (Macclesfield, M35) 26.39, 7 M Smith (South Chesh, M40) 26.51, 8 P Jones (Oswestry, M40) 27.08, 9 D Fahey (Goyt, M40) 27.09, 10 C Standidge (Chester Tri) 27.14.
 M45: 1 D Harris (Chester Tri) 28.06, 2 N Jones (South Chesh) 29.15, 3 K Begley (Chester Tri) 29.53.
 M50: 1 G MacNeil (Wilmslow) 28.23, 2 T Cahill (Abergele) 29.26, 3 M Robbins (Wrex) 30.22
 M55: 1 C Martin (Spectrum) 29.00, 2 D Carrington (Altrincham) 30.28, 2 M Weedall (Vale Royal) 31.22
 M60: 1 S Owen (Salford) 29.10, 2 M Cole (Suth Chesh) 34.03, 3 G Shaw (Helsby) 34.49
 M65: 1 T Hulme (Wilmslow) 33.36, 2 M Whiteside (Tatt) 35.32, J Morris (Buckley) 38.32
 M70: J Riley (N Vets) 41.39
 M75: 1 J Park (Cheshire Tally Ho) 42.08

Ladies

1 J Joy (Helsb) 30.51, 2 E Renondeau (Tatt) 31.12, 3 L Blizzard (Belgrave, L35) 31.46, 4 C Voyce (Sh Shufflers, L35) 33.42, 5 B Hughes (Chester Tri) 33.44, 6 J Thorn (Vale Royal, L55) 33.47.
 L35: 3 S Fourie (Chester Tri) 34.09
 L40: 1 L Morley (Wrex) 33.53, 2 C Hall (Wirral) 34.54, 3 L Davies (West Chesh) 37.46
 L45: 1 A Mageean (Chester Tri) 35.11, 2 S Waring (Stockport) 41.09, 3 J Lucas (Wilmslow) 41.41
 L50: 1 M Ludden (Buck) 34.16, 2 M Tavener (Vale R) 35.07, 3 C Shaw (Helsby) 36.26
 L55: 2 G Waring (Prestatyn) 38.07, 3 D Read (Spectrum) 38.43
 L60:  1 J Shaw (Helsby) 44.39, 2 L Bish (West Chesh) 52.57
 L65: S Swinnerton (South Chesh) 45.30
 

Cross-country rankings

FOUR NW ATHLETES IN UK RANKINGS' TOPTEN

Four of North Wales' outstanding youngsters who have had brilliant winters are listed in Athletics Weekly's first ever UK cross-country rankings.

 In the under-20s' class Charlie Hulson (Sale) is placed eighth, his third place in the McCain Challenge in Liverpool earning him his first GB vest.

 Joseph Crutchley (Maldwyn), who gained a bronze medal in the UK inter-counties' championships in Birmingham, is ranked a superb third in the under-13s' group. In the Welsh inter-regional championships he finished second behind Matthew Willis (Wrexham), who is placed fifth in the UK table.

 Welsh under-17s' champion and UK inter-counties bronze medallist Georgia Garner (Colwyn Bay) is ranked eighth in the U17 category and would have been higher but for a disappointing run in Liverpool.

Joe Brown Series (1)

RECORDS FALL ON MOEL TRYFAN

Roads specialist Gwyn Owen made a rare but winning appearance on the hills in the opening race of the Joe Brown Midweek Series at Moel Tryfan.

 Teenager Bronwen Jenkinson had her biggest win to date, beating the experienced Lisa Grantham by two seconds.

 Results (all Eryri unless stated): 1 G Owen 18.24, 2 J Rowley 18.41, 3 A Edwards 18.52, 4 J Parkinson (M40) 19.02, 5 H O'Donnell (Ambleside) 19.12, 6 DW Jones (M40) 19.20.
 U18: M Llyr 22.02.
M40: 3 N Craine 20.47.
 M50: D Sales (Pennine) 20.59.
 M60: P "Tan" Jones 23.56
 M70: E Davies 26.08
 Ladies: 1 B Jenkinson (U16) 22.22 (new record), 2 L Grantham (Chester Tri) 22.24, 3 M Owen (Cybi) 23.35. L40: K Broach (ua) 24.06 (new record). L50: E Salisbury 25.42 (new record). L60: M Oliver 31.19.

Fron Four

BENTLEY WINS DESPITE GETTING LOST - AGAIN

Sheer speed compensated for lack of navigational skills for Kent athlete Russell Bentley in the Fron Four mountain race.

 Last month he got lost while leading in the Moel Tryfan race at Fron, and on his blog he later joked that as a predominantly track athlete he was more used to course directions being simply "Left, straight on, left again and repeat".

 However, the same thing happened when he returned to the village for the longer Fron Four race, the course for which was shortened because of the snow.

 At the front of the field, he led a group of runners off-course but, realising his error, was fast enough to get back on-route and go on to win, while the other errant athletes were so far behind they could no longer see him making the correction.

 Results.
1 R Bentley (Kent) 43.15, 2 DW Jones (Eryri, M40) 43.59, 3 J Parkinson (Eryri, M40) 44.04, 4 J Brown (Buckley, M40) 44.46, 5 C Jones (Eryri, M40) 48.29, 6 M Davies (NWRR) 48.33.
 M50: 1 D Soles (Pennine) 49.54, 2 K Hagley (SWRR) 50.24, 3 J Williams (Eryri) 55.40.
 M60: D Owen (Prestatyn) 70.16.
 M70: E Davies (Eryri) 61.25
 Ladies
1 S Cumming (ua) 59.06, 2 K Worthington (Eryri) 59.15, 3 E Salisbury (Eryri, L50) 59.46. L40: A Wilde (ua) 66.55. L50: 2 S Jones (Cybi) 73.10.