THE Brecon AC/Brecon Rotary 3,4,5 series kicked off last Tuesday with excellent running conditions and a new record turnout of 186 finishers.

Preceded by a junior 1.5-mile fun run that attracted 52 entries from the age of six to 13, it was another highly successful event for race director Rob Williams and the team of officials, marshals and administrators.

The club was once again grateful for the continued support of Brecon Rotary club who have in no small way contributed to the growth of the series.

Described as one of the friendliest race series around the atmosphere was once again superb as athletes who had finished lined the narrow street to encourage and congratulate those who were still approaching the finish.

In the junior event there was a win for Brecon AC’s year 8 athlete Jack Organ ahead of Scott Price of Carmarthen who is a year older and finished in 8.02, 11 seconds behind Jack’s 7.51. Year 7 pupil Ellis Morgan (8.14) was third in the ‘High School’ category. In fifth place was Vaughan Hughes (Pentrepoeth) who was the first finisher in the year 4-6 category in 8.27, which was 16 seconds ahead of second placed Henry Organ. Seventh in the race was the first female competitor, year 6 pupil, Ruby Herdman of Cradoc school and Brecon AC running a time of 8.51. Other excellent runs came from Peter Murphy who won the year 1-3 category in 8.59 and Chloe Edwards (Llanelwedd) who was the first girl in the same age group.

All of the competitors did extremely well and seemed to enjoy the challenge. Hopefully they will all be back to try to improve upon their own performances in the next event on Tuesday, May 21.

The three-mile race featured a number of lean young runners as well as some of the old stagers but it was the U20s who featured most prominently.

Brecon AC’s Brychan Price-Davies was under pressure hanging on to a very fast start by Aberdare’s Joe Reardon but managed to stay within range until the pace subsided and then gradually eased away for his first win in this series. Reardon came in second followed by another U20 Evan Price-Davies who was delighted with his third place just seconds behind his brother.

Liam Griffiths, another U20 from Aberdare was fourth before there was a generation skip to Phil Morris (Brecon AC) who won the M40 section with a nifty 16.29.

In seventh Michael Holloway was the first senior male despite having run a fantastic 2hr 51sec marathon just two days earlier. Young (U17) Sam Jones had a good debut in Brecon AC colours coming in eleventh in 17.36 just four seconds ahead of club legend Austin Davies who was a clear winner of the M50 category in 17.40.

Club chairman Peter Sowerby was the first M55 in 18.49 while Merthyr’s Graham Mack once again showed remarkable ability to win the M60 age category in 20.42.

The first lady finisher was previous winner Wendy Price an F40 of Carmarthen who ran solidly for 31st place in 19.51 leaving the younger athletes to scrap for the minor placings.

Aimee Ferguson, running for Aberdare, had a good run to place second (1st SF) in 20.09 ahead of U20 Addy Carter of Hay Hotfooters (20.12), F35 Donna Morris (Builth) 20.22 and U20 Tiegan Ward (20.30).

The male team prizes for the season will see Brecon AC battling it out with Aberdare on this early showing however the ladies is far harder to predict with five clubs ‘in with a shout’.

Brecon AC, Aberdare, Hay Hotfooters, Merthyr and Dragons RC could all potentially top the table at the end of the series.

The four-mile race (7.15pm) and accompanying fun run (6.45pm) takes place on Tuesday, May 21 again from Llanfrynach Village Hall.