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06/05/2019 00:00, In Blog / Road /

Ieuan Thomas regained the Welsh 5km title that he last won in 2016 on Sunday evening. The Championships were held at the Cardiff 5k - Race for Victory in the Whitchurch suburb of Cardiff. The flat and fast evening road race is becoming known for its incredible atmosphere, live music, street food, cars and flames and not least for fast racing.

This fourth edition incorporated an Inter-Area match where Wales faced competition from the Midland Counties, North of England, Northern Ireland & Ulster and the UK Armed Forces. this meant a great standard of racing with 12 men running under the 15 minute barrier and 7 women under 17 minutes.

Cardiff AC's Thomas was able to exact his revenge on Swansea Harrier Jon Hopkins who had taken race victory 12 months ago to demote Thomas to second on that occasion.

He finished in 14:18 just four seconds behind outright race winner Adam Hickey. The Uk-Inter-Counties Cross Country Champion had travelled from Southend to  start in the Cardiff Showpiece and was able to pull away from Thomas in the closing stages.

Swansea Harrier Guy Smith was the next athlete home in fourth outright but as the third man home in the Championship race.

Clara Evans has improved considerably over the last 12 months and a 72:52 posting in the Barcelona Half Marathon earlier this year has announced her as a serious contender against domestic competition.

Her winning time of 16:04 was enough for the title and the race win outright.

‘I was happy with that’ said Evans. I’ve been training with the Welsh camp in Alburquee and was glad to see what kind of shape I was in’.

The next athlete home was Welsh team mate Jade Williams of Amman Valley Harriers in 16:22, followed home by Elinor Kirk running for Swansea Harriers in 16:32. Kate Maltby was the first non-Welsh athlete, running for Midland Counties.

Hosts Wales were the victors in the Inter-Area match for both men and women.

Results can be found here

Full Championship results will follow.