Welsh U17/20/23 teams travelled to Edinburgh for the Celtic Cross Country International that was part of the Edinburgh Cross Challenge that featured many of the worlds best including race winners
Kenenisa Bekele and
Gelete Burka.
Travel to Edinburgh was good for those from South/North Wales but unfortunately Emily Kendrick was held up at Bristol airport for approx 7 hours due to snow/flooding and arrived at the Edinburgh accommodation at approx 10pm – not the best preparation. The standard of accommodation at Herriot Watt University was good as was the quantity and quality of food.
The courses in picturesque Holyrood Park, scene of a recent Rebus mystery on T.V., were icy but not too hard to reject a spike apart from the extended lap that takes in a hill loop on the edge of landmark ‘Arthur’s seat’.
The racing got off to a good start with the two domestic U15’s Zoe Thomas and Carys Deeley running very positively. Zoe finished the race in 4th place with Carys finishing close behind in 5thin the race but 2nd and 3rd Celts. With Emily Downey 14th the team missed 1st place by just 1 point.
The U17 boys were weakened when Nicky Morrell realised he had left his spikes at the university just 15 minutes before his race (size 12). He did his best but was always going to struggle. The other boys ran to the best of their ability with Jonathon Hopkins in 14th (6th Celtic) pipping Charlie Hulson (15th) by 3 seconds while Josh Harries came in at 25th. The team placed 3rd.
The U20/23 Women lined up against the current and former world champions on a course of 6700m. In a race won by Gelete Burka with Linet Masai 2nd, Vivian Cheruiyot 3rd and Steph Twell 4th, Ellie Kirk had a strong run and finished 44th (6th Celtic U20) with Bethan Strange leading home the U23 team by placing 67th. The U20 team was completed by Jenna Roberts in 77th, Bethan Woods 84th and Alaw Beynon-Thomas 87th while the U23 team also featured Chloe Rodham in 79th and Emily Kendrick in 93rd. Wales finished 4th in each age group.
In the U20/23 race, again featuring a who’s who of running including eventual winner Kenenisa Bekele Craig Peters ran very well to place 26th (2nd Celtic U26). Afan Humphries was the only other U23 and battled well for 59th while leading U20 Dewi Griffiths also ran well for 40th place (5th Celtic U20). A highly disappointed Ieuan Thomas was forced to drop out leaving the U20’s short of a team. Ricky Challinor ran well for much of the race before fading slightly into 69th. The U20 team placed 3rd, 1 point behind Ireland in 2nd.
Although these races were longer than some of our athletes were used to it is an excellent opportunity to toe the line with some of the worlds’ best and hopefully they will take confidence from this and train with renewed vigour to attempt to emulate these elite athletes.
The weekend continued with a trip to the cinema in the evening and a shopping trip on the Sunday at the request of the boys.
This was one of the most enjoyable trips for some time with all athletes displaying impeccable behaviour and most showing the level of organisation and self discipline needed to move on in this sport. D. Osborne 25/1/08
