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South Wales claim team title at Welsh Inter-Regional / Inter-Schools Championships
16/11/2019 00:00, In Blog / Cross Country / School News /
Alaw Beynon-Thomas and Matthew Edwards were comfortable winners of the senior races at the Welsh Inter-Regional Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
The 21st Welsh Inter-Regional Cross Country Championships took place in conjunction with the 43rd Welsh Inter-Schools and Welsh Colleges Championships in Brecon.
Recent rainfall meant that the fast winding course around the Penlan Arena was boggy in places but also offered some great runnable sections.
Alaw Beynon-Thomas’ victory enabled her to retain her title from Llandrindod Wells last year ahead of another pre-race favourite, Lucy Marland running for the South Wales Team.
West Walian Beynon-Thomas completed the 6,090m course in just over 22 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of the runner-up after moving clear of the field half way through the first large lap.
Her team mate Megan Carter-Davies had a great run to finish third, ahead of East Wales’ Lauren Cooper who had beaten her last weekend at the Gwent League Fixture at Pembrey. It was Cooper however who led her team to victory.
Beynon-Thomas commented on the race saying; ‘The course was good it wasn’t too muddy and still firm in places but looking at the men’s course now it looks awful, really muddy’.
‘It was a good race, I felt really good on the hills and I’m managed to use them to pull away in the far field’.
Master titles here went to Georgie Parnell of East Wales, Nina Davies of South Wales and Anne Mynott of North Wales in the W35, W45 and W55 categories.
Matthew Edwards was an emphatic winner of the senior men’s race over 9,530m leading a South Wales clean sweep and comfortable team victory. He finished nearly a minute ahead of Ewan Short with Luke Williams third.
Matt Edmonds of East Wales took M35 honours with Huw Evans of West Wales winning the M45 category and Brecon man Mike Holloway of East Wales taking the M55 title.
Samia Jones was the U15 winner 12 months ago and an outright winner of the combined U17 / 20 race today with an U17 Inter-Regional title.
Hannah Jenkins of South Wales was the U20 winner with Moli Lyons of Bro Morgannwg taking the senior girls title in the Inter-Schools competition. South Wales claimed both the U17 and U20 women’s titles.
Aled Jones won the U20 men’s race for North Wales but was unable to prevent the South from claiming the team title. Bryn Woodall led North Wales to the U17 men’s title with an individual win.
Rhys Hardman of Cowbridge took the Inter-Schools win in the senior boy’s race.
Gwenno Goode was the U15 Girls winner for South Wales, also claiming the middle girls title for Bro Morgannwg.
Frank Morgan of West Wales was the U15 boys race winner claiming the Inter-Schools title for Bro Myrddin.
Iona Roderick of South Wales won the U13 Inter-Regional race for South Wales and the Inter-Schools title with Ysgol Glantaf.
West Wales’ Iwan Thomas and Finlay Tarling of Aberaeron took Inter-Regional and Inter-Schools titles respectively.
South Wales retained their overall team title by a margin of 28 points over second placed East Wales.
Race Results available here