Six Brecon AC athletes represented East Wales in the British Inter Counties Cross Country Championships at Loughborough.

The event - which took place Saturday, March 1 - is always an eye opener for most Welsh athletes due to the mass gallop start and the relentless pace.

With over 300 of the UK’s best juniors in some races this is probably the most challenging of all mass participation cross country events each winter. None of those who ran on Saturday had been before so this created a few more butterflies and added to the challenge of holding it together mentally for the whole of the race.

The largest Brecon AC contingent was in the U15 boys race where Joe Murphy, Toby Bennett and Alex Peltor wore the purple vests of East Wales.

Joe was relatively quickly out of the blocks but had to avoid one of many mass tumbles at a slight narrowing of the course 200m from the start and like many, Joe started a little too quickly, unused to the large number competing. Despite the negativity of being overtaken regularly Joe came in 164th which is a respectable finish at this level.

Toby ran to order, getting stuck into the large middle group long enough to get carried around in 246th place. Alex, who is a year younger lost touch with the group mid race but should still be pleased with his 285th place and the fact that he was 5th East finisher and not badly tailed off.

Joe Edwards was the sole Brecon AC U13 and he set off rapidly and was probably 20th a few hundred metres out and looking prominent as one of the taller boys in the race. As expected at this level Joe drifted back but his 92nd place was the highest by a Brecon athlete and Joe was in the top 3 or 4 Welsh finishers in this age group.

Ruby Herdman and Emily Peltor were caught up in the mad dash of the U15 girls start with again over 300 toeing the line. Ruby, soon to represent Welsh Schools for the first time, was well up in the top 50 early on but struggled to come to terms with the number of thundering feet and constant overtakers and slipped back to 105th.

Still an excellent effort though at this level. Emily had different aspirations but probably surpassed expectation as she finished 4th for East Wales in 267th, ahead of some who would normally beat her.

Meanwhile Brecon M40 Matt Jones, a prolific winner of local parkruns, has just won the M40 section of the Newport half marathon with an 8th place finish overall in a very fast time of 1.13.44. On an icy cold morning Matt generated enough body heat to maintain a strong pace but found that his hands were almost hypothermic long before the end. Well done Matt!