DESPITE the trials and tribulations of rescuing the Penlan course from the damage caused by unaware test drilling contractors the final Gwent Cross Country League fixture to be staged at the course was a resounding success for Brecon AC.

With over 1200 runners due to descend on Brecon for the 10 race match the worry went to the wire as it was only the day before that the old cricket field was returned to anything resembling safe and it was fortunate that the Health and Safety Officer was very understanding in her assessment.

The day proved to be overcast and damp and with heavy rain overnight the Penlan turf soon resembled a quagmire but this didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of most of the runners and there were many favourable comments about the course again.

For Brecon AC it proved to be another event where the growing club pulled together again to provide course builders, marshals, caterers, team managers, tent erectors and a record turnout of home athletes.

With the league match doubling up as the East Wales Championships there was the added incentive of medals to be won.

The efforts of the backroom team were rewarded by the biggest ever turnout of Brecon AC athletes for a cross country fixture. And a succession of good performances.

The U11 teams surpassed their incredible turnout at the previous match by quite some way.

Thirteen Brecon AC U11 boys were among the 115 who toed the line of the first race of the day and it was one of those ‘true spirit’ occasions with home runners turning out whatever their current ability.

A 1500m course must have felt like more but the front runners made light work of it. Brecon’s first home was Jamie Williams in 12th place followed closely by Ellis Bowers in 18th. Both boys also ran excellently in Cardiff last month with Jamie now 7th overall in the league. With Henry Organ in 29th, Will Herdman in 31st, Henry Johnson 32nd Toby Bennett 35th and Gruff Peters 37th this was a strong team performance. Still going strongly in under 7 minutes was Alfie Thomas in 54th with Alex Peltor 66th, Ben McClean 84th, Osian James 95th, Tom Roberts 101st, Aneurin Skinner 107th and Charlie Symmons 111th. The ‘A’ team came 3rd but remain 2nd on cumulative points and remarkably the ‘B’ team was 10th , the ‘C’ team 27th and the ‘D’ team 47th out of 49 teams. Jamie, Ellis and Henry comprehensively won the East team golds while Will, Henry J and Toby will get bronze medals for 3rd team.

The U11 girls beat the boys with 23 finishers out of the field of 121. Ruby Herdman was again the leading light with 15th place and is now 9th overall in the league.

Ruby was also awarded a bronze medal for 3rd place in the East Championships. Niamh Aplin (38th) and Emily Peltor (39th) were the next two scorers with Hanna Powell (43rd) making up the ‘A’ team which finished in a credible 6th place out of teams. Hot on Hanna’s heels was Hali Rae Morris in 45th, Aelwen Davies in 48th, Lilwen Banning in 49th and Anna Peltor in 54th. Poppy Thomas was 59th, Hannah Morgan 69th , Daisy Osborne 90th, Emily Rose 94th, Clemmie Davies 98th, Freya Roberts 100th, Rosie Evans 102nd, Grace Powell 104th, Grace Lloyd 105th, Olivia Ellis 106th, Amelie Murphy 107th, Illah Crow 108th, Matilda Heaylie 118th, Abigail Jones 119th and Teagan Burnett 120th.

Everyone is a winner for competing and finishing in a race of this nature. Brecon AC had 3 teams in the top 20 and remarkably had 6 teams in total. Ruby, Niamh and Emily will also retrospectively receive silver medals for 2nd team position in the East Championships.

The U13 boys have also been showing a great deal of potential and this time were even stronger than at Cardiff. Jack Organ avoided any mishaps at the start and ran his best race of the season to place 5th and win the East Champs as an added bonus. Rory Orton showed signs of his potential as he came home strongly in 19th (3rd East Wales) and Owen Griffiths was just behind in 22nd suffering slightly from too short spikes. Isaac Pierce in 32nd, just 20 secs behind Owen completed the ‘A’ team with the boys finishing 2nd on the day and moving up to 3rd overall. Just outside the ‘A’ team were Dan Ricketts in 55th and John Bennett in 65th while providing excellent back up were Ollie Rose in 68th, Cian Aplin 70th and Brynich Skinner 88th. Once again Brecon (Jack, Rory and Owen) were comprehensive winners of the East team medals but this time the ‘B’ team were unfortunately just pushed back into 4th place.

Brecon’s U13 girls team might lack firepower at the top of the race but were still good enough for 4th place in the East Wales Championship. Leading the girls home again was Katie Powell in 38th, a little down on her Cardiff performance but still pleasing out of 71 finishers. Katie was followed by Kathryn Woods in 61st, Szofi Okros in 63rd, Ruby Thomas in 64th, Chloe Jones 65th, Seren Burnett 66th and Ella Doyne 70th. In the Gwent League the team is 15th out of 33. Hopefully all of the girls will stick at it and aim for consistent improvement.

Only 2 Brecon AC U15 boys were able to compete and since there wasn’t a single club in East Wales that was able to field a team of three a set of gold medals went begging. Ethan Jones is now beginning to show his potential after starting to train more seriously and came in 50th out of 74 with race walker Dan Gilbert using the race for stamina training and placing 67th.

After the relative disappointment of the boys the club U15 girls team provided some of the highlights of the day. Tiegan Ward in 13th had her best run for some time, starting fast and then hanging on despite losing a few places later in the race. Tiegan took the silver medal in the East Wales Championships. Leonora Ritson-Walton was at least 10 places higher than the Cardiff round despite twisting an ankle and getting spiked and was 5th best in East Wales. Glesni Powell had a strong run too, coming through to 37th with Ruby Carleton not too far behind in 42nd. Tiegan, Leonora and Glesni will collect silver East Wales team medals while Ruby’s points added in helped the team to finish 7th out of 32 Gwent League teams.

Brothers Brychan and Evan Price-Davies toed the line in the U17 boys race and despite being twins ran very different races. Brychan got out fast to avoid getting blocked in the muddy conditions but perhaps over cooked it slightly and dropped back from top 5 to 14th during the 2nd lap. Ever improving Evan ran a steadily strong race to place 24th.

As the senior womens race goes from strength to strength the home club found itself in the disappointing position of only being able to field a team of 3 in a total turnout of 314. Despite the best efforts of Donna Morris 49th, Laurie Higgins 145th and 17 year old Izzy Goodrich 208th the club team is now rooted at the bottom of division 2 and needs at least 2 more athletes to have a chance of avoiding relegation.

The Brecon senior mens team provided some late afternoon cheer with a massively improved performance. With the awesome sight of Swansea Harrier Dewi Griffiths, a previous regular in this league, winning by probably 500m just 2 weeks after clocking 2.09 and becoming the 2nd fastest Welsh marathon runner ever behind the legendary Steve Jones it was a good race to watch. Dewi lapped some of the back markers before they had finished their first lap – on just a 3 lap course! The field of 415 finishers was also notable as by far the biggest cross country race held at Brecon.

Running with a similar light gliding style to Dewi Brecon’s first man home was Rhodri Buffett in 14th place, a significant improvement on his Cardiff outing and good enough for East Wales silver. A man who a few years ago would have been battling it out with Dewi was next in as ‘returning to fitness’ Austin Davies won the M50 section while coming in 34th overall – modest by his standards but remarkably still ahead of many good runners. Martin Shaw made his first appearance for a while and will be more than pleased with his 70th place as he now joins the M45 category. Martin was hotly pursued by M35 Phil Morris making his cross country debut for Brecon. For the East Wales Champs the scoring ends with Phil and the ‘A’ team was second.

The Gwent League team scoring is based on 5 for seniors and so, with the addition of Michael Holloway (110th) to the scoring the club won division 2 on the day and jump from 6th to second overall.

There was plenty more to come with M50 Pete Sowerby coming home in 134th, M50 Charlie Northey 161st, SM Gareth Lawrence 221st, M60 Marc Sims 297th and M45 Paul Bufton 392nd. A great team performance and team spirit.

Brecon AC would like to thank the many people who helped with putting up and taking down the course, selling refreshments, marshalling and team managing.

If anyone would like to become involved with Brecon AC either as an athlete or helper please make contact via the club facebook page or the club website.For more pictures see this week's Brecon and Radnor Express.