Gwent League 1 – Bridgend Sunday 12th October

Gwent League 1 – Bridgend
Sunday 12th October
Conditions were perfect for the first cross country event of the season and we had some good results all
round. In the first race the Novice Boys achieved a good spread of results in a race with well over 100
athletes competing. Jacob Reynolds ran very well to place 2nd behind a Pembrokeshire Harriers athlete
with Ryan Edwards not far behind in 5th. Also running very well to make up the A team was Charlie Lewis in
16th and Harry Pearce in his first ever cross country race who placed 24th helping the A team place 2nd
overall, which is only 19 points behind Carmarthen Harriers and only 4 points ahead of Pembrokeshire
Harriers. The B team comprised of Kareem Hadid also racing his first cross country race for the club in 26th
with Joe Taylor placing 30th, Huw Riley in 31st and year 5 athlete Oliver Kirkham in 41st. The B team are
currently placed 6th overall and are 2nd out of all the B teams behind the Carmarthen Harriers B team. Our
final three athletes, who much prefer sprinting and field events did very well to complete the course with
Matthew Paris placing 99th, Tshiamo Davies in 103rd and Jordan Uko in 110th.
On the girls side, Alanah Hill looked very smooth in her running to be the first Archers athlete home in 8th
place with Eden Williams not far behind after a fantastic sprint finish to place 11th. Also running very well
to make up the A team was Freya Roberts who placed 22nd and Ellie Miles who placed 27th achieving a 4th
place finish for the Novice Girls A team which was only 1 point behind the Carmarthen Harriers A team.
Year 5 athlete Isabella Wigley ran very well against many older athletes to place 29th with Isabel Morgan
placing 49th, Ella Jackson 56th and year 5 Mali Davies 62nd, to make up the B team who were placed 11th
overall, which is currently the top scoring B team. Just behind Mali was another year 5 athlete Rebecca
Holley in 63rd with Ellie-Rose Issac in 65th. These are all fantastic results considering that there were 96
athletes in the race in total.
In the Under 13 Boys a surprise result came from new Archers athlete James Penrose who, with Ben
Reynolds beat me to the finish line, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos of those two. James placed a
fantastic 3rd, with Ben just behind placing 6th scoring some excellent points for the team. Also scoring very
well to make up the A team were Lewis Driscoll in 18thand Tomos Evans in 21st, giving this team a fantastic
first place in the current team rankings. This said they are only 3 points ahead of North Somerset in 2nd and
only 15 points ahead of Carmarthen Harriers in 3rd, so it’s all to race for in the coming events. Gareth Rees
and Oliver Hampshire placed 42nd and 49th respectively, again placing very well in a field of 92 athletes.
In the Under 13 Girls race, year 7 athlete Anya Lennon was the first athlete home placing a respectable 26 th
in her first race over the 2.5km distance. Nia Riley, who is never far behind Anya on the longer distances
was just behind in 30th, with Lily Ivin placing 42nd and Megan Jones in 49th which gave the A team 8th
position overall which is something to try and improve on in the next race. Scoring for the B team was
Bethan Witchell in her first run for the club, placing 61st, with Hannah Bidwell in 68th, Grace Morgan in 75th
and Aimee Callow in 77th which put the B team 18th overall. Tanisha Johnson had a tough run on the
uneven surfaces to place 101st, which I am sure she will aim to beat next time.
Finally, in the Under 15 age groups, Elis Golding looked strong placing 32nd just ahead of Daniel Austin in
34th who fought right to the line to hold this position. Owain Edwards placed 44th, in what was a very
spread out field, in his first race back after almost a year off with injury. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a full
team in this race but hopefully this is something to build on for next time to improve on the 11th place team
finish.
In the under 15 girls Taiya Jones was the first athlete home in 29th place ahead of Ffion Morgan in 34th.
Both athletes have made huge progress in their 800m’s this summer and tend to favour that distance now.
New Archers athlete Harriet Kenward placed 70th in what was a very spread out field, with Olivia Hope and
Anya Nicholas finishing in 74th and 75th places after a race distance far out-of-their comfort zone, but they
did their bit, scoring points for the team to give the girls a 15th place team result.