Cardiff AAC`s
Richard Gardiner led his club to a clean sweep of medals on Swansea’s undulating Singleton Park course. It was the second of four laps that Gardiner tried to stamp his authority and moved away for a slight lead over his club mates
Mark Jennings,
Alex Haines and
Nat Lane.
It was not until the last lap that the gap widened to over 20 seconds that gave him the comfort of his first cross country title. Behind him, a gigantic tussle over the cruel up hill finish, saw Jennings overhaul Lane in the final metres. However this clean sweep was not enough to wrestle the six to score team title from the home town club, Swansea Harriers.
The senior ladies title was unexpectedly won by Well City Harriers, Clare Martin. Her London Marathon preparation, is going well as she took to the front from the gun, and moved steadily away to take the victory by over a minute from Swansea Catherine Dugdale, who was after her ninth victory. In a battle with Morpeths Delyth James, Dugdale led her team to victory, which included a run out for Non Stanford in fourth on her home turn.
There were dominant victories from Craig Peters (Bristol & West) and Dewi Griffiths (Carmarthen Harriers) in the under 20 and under 17 mens races respectively. The under 15 boys however saw Deeside’s Jamie Wright and Newport’s Chris Carpaninni, given the same time but the north Walian getting the verdict.
Equally the Under17/20 Women’s race was a close affair, with Carmarthen’s Alaw Beynon-Thomas crossing the line strides ahead of Neaths Leah Dixon who had the consolation of taking the under 17 title in this mixed race. Beynon-Thomas led her club to victory.
Bridgend AC’s Zoe Thomas went one better than last years championships and headed the race from the gun, a lead she went on to hold to the line.
The early races were marred by some heavy rain, but this did not deter Swansea’s Harriers Hywelis Thomas-Howells and Cwmbran’s Matthew Antoniazzi from taking the under 13 girls and under 13 boys titles
