News

15/01/2019 00:00, In Blog / Club Notice Board / Road / School News /

The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon takes place on Sunday 28 April 2019 and is the official British Athletics three-mile road championships for young athletes aged between 11 and 17. The race is open to entrants from the nine regions of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and teams from all 33 London Boroughs.

Wales has a strong heritage in this event with notable wins at both Team and individual level in previous years, including in 2006 when Dewi Griffiths was the individual winner, and part of a team including Adam Bitchell, Rowan Axe and Joshua Harris who won team Gold. Three of these have gone on to represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games. We are committed to continuing this tradition by ensuring we send our brightest talents from across the country to experience this high-level competition.

Welsh athletics have now taken over selection and support for the Wales team from Welsh Schools Athletics Association. The races are a high-profile opportunity for the best young athletes in Wales to compete against athletes from across the UK. A new approach to selection will be introduced this year with the intention of increasing the opportunity for athletes from all regions to gain selection.

"We've been working closely with Welsh Schools, looking at the competition schedule and seeing how we can protect the pool of talented young athletes we have from needing to over-compete. Moving to a one off time-trial instead of multiple races, will help with this, and provide us with an annual opportunity to track the progress of our athletes." said National Coach, Chris Jones "It'll also mean athletes from all regions continue to have the same opportunity to gain selection."

Watch Chris & Liz Davies explain why and how young people can get involved.

Qualification

Each home nation has a Team Manager who is responsible for selecting a team to take part in the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon, which also doubles as the British Athletics three-mile road championships.

• Teams are made up of 36 runners per region/home nation. Boys and Girls race in three age categories – Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17.

There are six races in total. The British Athletics championship results will be compiled from the top four scorers in each region.

How do I get selected to represent Wales?

For 2019 selection will be based on 3km time trials held on the track in each of the four regions, West Wales have now held theirs, the South and East are running a combined event on the 23rd and the North Wales event will take place before the end of January. The winner in each age group in each region will be automatically selected plus then the next four ‘fastest losers’ across all four regions – two to complete the team of six and two as reserves.

• Winner North, Winner East, Winner West, Winner South + next 4 fastest overall to give a team of 6 plus 2 reserves per age group.
• Total team of 36 plus 12 reserves

This will be the only means of selection for the event. The time trial selection approach will be piloted this year, with other options considered for future years.

Each regional time trial will be organised by the Regional Endurance Programme Coordinators – please contact them directly to express your interest:

• North     John Messum             john.messum@hotmail.com
• South     Liz Davies                 lizruth@hotmail.com
• West       Delyth Brown            delann13@hotmail.co.uk
• East        Darryn McAtee           desmac66@hotmail.com

Welsh Athletes based outside of Wales can qualify via their local regional structure (North, Midlands, etc.)

More information about the event is available from the Virgin Mini Marathon website

U17 team from 2011, Tom Earley, Nathan Jones, Josh Griffiths, Elliott Slade, Lloyd Heckler and Liam Lloyd.