Newyddion
Chepstow, the focus of the athletics world 50 years ago
07/03/2026 00:00, I Mewn Blog /
Clive Williams recalls how the Monmouthshire town expertly managed this prestigious event half a century ago
50 years ago later this month, the fourth edition of the World Cross Country Championships was held on Chepstow Racecourse - the 10th and last time that this event, or its predecessor, the International Cross Country Championships have been held in Wales. Welsh officials Frank Liddington Johns and R.A Pritchard, the then secretary of the Welsh Cross Country Association, were instrumental in planning the first international race in Glasgow in 1903.
The Chepstow race was won by future world marathon record holder Carlos Lopes of Portugal with Maesteg-born Tony Simmons finishing second running for England. Lopes went on to win the title on a further two occasions, with the last being fittingly in Lisbon in 1985, the year he took the world marathon record from Steve Jones.
Simmons had fallen out with the Welsh selectors, so the Luton-based athlete made use of his residency to make a point to Welsh officials. He also finished fourth for England in Glasgow in 1978 before returning to the fold in time for that year’s Edmonton Commonwealth Games. And whilst not repeating his fine 2nd place in an England vest in 1976, he finished an excellent 4th in the red of the Land of his Fathers in Ireland in 1979. Simmons was a brilliant all-round runner who narrowly failed to win the European 10,000m title in Rome in 1974 and at the 1976 Montreal Olympics was beaten by a mere second or so by Brendan Foster for the bronze medal in a race won by Finish icon Lasse Viren.
The 1976 Chepstow event was expertly organised by the president of the Welsh Cross Country Association Captain (Rtd) George Crump, who lived locally.
At the time, Caerleon Racecourse, which closed in 1948, and just down the road from Chepstow, was the mecca of Welsh cross country running, and hosted the international event on 6 occasions between 1906 and 1951. The 1939 race took place at the also defunct Ely Racecourse in Cardiff, with the 1958 championships being held at Cardiff’s Pontcanna Fields. The 1967 event took place at Barry Sports Centre, and the last occasion at Chepstow Racecourse in 1976.
Pontcanna Fields, no more than a couple of hundred yards from Cardiff’s city centre, saw the emergence of one of the all-time greats of Welsh athletics – John Merriman, who finished an excellent 7th, one of the finest performances at the time by a Welshman in the event. This performance came just a few months before the name of Merriman was on everyone’s lips as he took the Empire (now Commonwealth) 6 miles silver medal after a stirring battle with Australia’s Dave Power at Cardiff Arms Park. Merriman went on the break the UK 10,000m UK record in the Rome Olympics becoming the first Briton the dip under the 29 minute barrier.
However, two years later in Scotland he finished 3rd to equal Sam Palmer’s 1938 performance in Belfast as the best performance at the time by a Welshman in the event. It took another 40 or so years before this third place was equalled by Steve Jones in 1984 in a race won again by Carlos Lopes. These third places by Palmer, Merriman and Jones remain the best performance by a Welshman wearing the red of Wales in the event – but not the finest achievement by a Welsh athlete in the event….
This accolade belongs to Angela Tooby who ran a magnificent race to take the silver medal in the 1988 championships in Auckland behind world marathon record holder Ingrid Kristiansen. Tooby, the 1986 Commonwealth 10,000 bronze medallist had a fabulous run in New Zealand to confirm her status as Britain’s number one cross country runner. 1988 was an outstanding year for her as on the track she also competed in the Seoul Olympics and won the Women’s (UK) AAA 10,000 title, with twin sister Susan, mother of former world 1,500m champion Jake Wightman 4th.
Wales was again at the forefront of world cross country running when it hosted the first formal international cross country race for women at Barry in 1967. Doris Brown of the USA won and retained the title for the next four years. Junior races for men and women were held for the first time in 1973 and 1989 respectively.
The home countries competed as individual teams from the inception of the event in 1903, but this came to an end in 1988 when, at the insistence of the IAAF (the then world governing body of athletics) a UK team replaced the individual teams of the home nations.
It was understandable that the IAAF should take this stance, but whilst the international championships would have started sometime later anyway, it should never be forgotten that the first race in 1903 was instigated by the foresight of Welsh officials Liddington Johns and Pritchard.