BRECON AC kicked off the club cross country season with a bang in Cardiff last weekend.

The Gwent League is normally a big occasion with clubs from all over South and West Wales as well as South West England but this time out it was also combined with the UK Cross Challenge for the first time. This added approximately 20 top quality athletes to each race (except the U11’s) as well as ‘the trimmings’ of loads of colourful marker tape, start and finish inflatables and constant running commentaries.

For many of Brecon AC’s athletes, stepping out of local schools leagues and into this atmosphere may have been a little unnerving but it didn’t show and there wasn’t a bad performance all day.

The clubs U11 section had probably the biggest turnout of any club in the league with a grand total of 25 boys and girls and they produced a whole host of excellent performances. In the boys race there were 118 finishers and Jamie Morgan had a storming race to come 6th just 14 seconds behind the winner. Ellis Morgan was close behind in 14th while Gruff Peters and Elis Bowers were 25th and 26th respectively, only serven seconds behind Ellis. Will Harman was next home in 40th, just ahead of Henry Organ (42nd). Not far behind were Henry Johnson in 62nd and Alex Peltor in 67th. Ben McClean (90th), Osiam James (95th), Tom Roberts (99th) and Aneurin Skinner (103rd) completed the Brecon team. Out of 48 scoring teams the Brecon AC ‘A’ team came second, the ‘B’ team was 10th and the ‘C’ team was 27th – a fantastic achievement.

The U11 girls did their best not to be outdone by the boys and were led home by Ruby Herdman who was 11th out of 123 finishers – another excellent result. Niamh Aplin (40th), Emily Peltor (42nd) and Hanna Powell (43rd) were only about 30 seconds behind Ruby but athletes were finishing thick and fast at about 1 per second. Lilwen Banning came home in 55th and Anna Peltor was 59th, with Aelwen Davies 66th, Anna Morgan 68th and Hali Rae Morris 69th. In next at 78th was Daisy Osborne, just ahead of Erin Coyle at 86th with Freya Roberts just 30 seconds behind in 109th.

The ‘A’ team came a very creditable eighth, the ‘B’ team was 14th and the ‘C’ team was 23rd out of a total of 37 teams.

Brecon’s U13 boys were almost at full strength and despite many of them being at the lower end of the age group they put in a very pleasing performance. First home was Jack Organ who, despite being tripped at the start and having his arm badly spiked managed to get right back in there and come home in the top 30. When the UK youngsters were extracted from the results Jack was 9th out of 90 Gwent League finishers. Literally two seconds behind and giving Jack a really good run for his money was Owen Griffiths in 10th. About 40 secs behind, in 40th place was Isaac Pierce while in 61st place, fresh from his indoor Quadrathlon medal winning performance was John Bennett. Daniel Ricketts was close behind John in 63rd with Cian Aplin in 73rd, Owen Price-Davies 87th and Brynich Skinner 90th. Every one of the boys ran well relative to their ability and current fitness levels. The ‘A’ team finished in a very competitive 6th place and the ‘B’ team were 24th out of 33 teams.

There were only three U13 girls in what was a weak age group for the club throughout the summer. Katie Powell ran extremely well to place 28th with Szofi Okros in 60th and sprinter Ruby Thomas in 68th out of the 78 Gwent League competitors. Despite being one short of a scoring quartet the girls did well enough to place 16th out of 30 teams.

Two U15 boys contested the relatively short two mile course. Iwan Coyle, in his first year in the age group will be reasonably happy with his 33rd place although he will probably relish it when the going gets tougher. Ethan Jones, relatively inexperienced at cross country was a credible 76th out of the 89 finishers. With four U15 girls running Brecon AC finished 10th out of 28 teams in this age group. Tiegan Ward was first home in 24th which is a good place to start the season and gradually improve over the long winter ahead. Leonora Ritson Walton had missed a schools league match just a week or so before with illness and this still slightly affected her performance but 32nd out of the 84 finishers was still a pleasing early season result.

Ruby Carleton is starting to show her promise and a fast finish took her into 51st place with Glesni Powell also contributing valuable points in 68th place.

In the combined U17/20 event there were some incredibly fast athletes at the front end battling it out for UK cross challenge points and an early season tilt at GB selection. Just behind this action Brecon’s leading competitor Brychan Price-Davies had a pleasing start to the season as he battled home in 17th place.

Twin brother Evan had a massive improvement relative to last year as he came in 31st with relative youngster Sion Coyle also running very well in 37th place. The boys were 10th out of 21 teams.

Next came the senior women’s race and Brecon AC could only field three competitors in a disappointing start to the season. Donna Morris in 59th had an excellent run given that she gave birth at the end of the summer and must be still suffering from sleepless nights. This was Donna’s first run in Brecon AC colours. Next home was Gwent League debutante Laurie Higgins in 204th ‘fresh’ from another type of debut having completed her first marathon just six days earlier! Youngster Issy Goodridge made up the trio coming in 233rd out of a large field of 326.

The team placed seventh out of the 10 teams in Division 2 and will hope to avoid another relegation battle this winter.

Finally, the showpiece event was the senior mens 9k event. Rhodri Buffett made his first Brecon AC appearance for a couple of years and looked to be in good shape as he cruised around the three lap course.

A past winner of one of these fixtures Rhod had to settle for 22nd out of the 444 finishers but is already talking of completing the season for the first time. Next home was Michael Holloway at 130th running for the club for the first time since he was in the junior ranks many years ago. After an early battle with Mike, M50 Peter Sowerby had to give way to the younger man but will still be pleased with 159th and it was another M50 Charlie Northey who came home next in 218th.

Debut maker Gareth Lawrence enjoyed his first experience as he battled home in 297th marginally ahead of M60 Marc Sims who was again making his club cross country debut.

The team was completed by Derek Osborne in 374th and Paul Bufton in 415th both of whom will hope to get fitter as the season progresses.

The team came in sixth out of the 122 teams in Division 2 and with the home fixture next will hope to ease up the table and mount a promotion challenge.