Athletics: Prestatyn men impress

Feb 3 2010

OVER the past couple of years Prestatyn Running Club’s women have taken the main team honours at national and international cross-country events but last weekend it was the turn of the men to grab the limelight.

The Rhug Organics North Wales Championships at Corwen proved highly successful for the club, who were well represented at junior and senior – and very senior – level.

Pride of place went to the senior men’s team, who took gold for the first time, proving the value of turning out in numbers, and they did it without some of the club’s regular performers.

The qualifying six were Mathew Anwyl, Dean Longley, George Nicholls, Neil Owen, Des Davies and Paul Brandrick, but Lee Bailey – making his cross-country debut – and Andrew Whitehouse also played a part in pushing members of other clubs back places.

Mathew Anwyl took individual silver in the M35 category and Neil Owen did likewise in the M55 class.

Three of the club’s super-vets also gained individual awards, Roger Harrison-Jones winning the M70 category and Griff Owens and Steve Hatfield first and second in the M60 section.

Injuries and other commitments meant that the ladies’ squad was reduced to four and they only just missed out on team bronze, with Becky Robinson leading the quartet home.

It was also excellent to see 10 of the club’s juniors in competitive action, some of them representing their schools. The best individual result came from Lucy McEwen, who took bronze in the U11 girls’ race. Unfortunately Abigail Burton was forced to pull out after her she came off.

The meeting, held at the Rhug Estate for the first time, was also a triumph for the club in other ways as PRC had taken a lead role in staging the event, and the course, whilst very testing, was hailed as one of the best to host the competition in recent years.

The placings were:- Girls under 11: 3 Lucy McEwen 5.54, 18 Jemma Bagnall 6.56, 19 Ceri Vaughan 7.02. Ladies under 17: 5 Aime Bagnall 19.29. Boys under 11: 8 Josh Ablett 10.03, 16 Matthew Vaughan 10.27, 34 Christopher Hughes 11.29, 50 Daniel Ward 13.27. Boys under 13: 10 Leon Bagnall 15.20. Senior ladies: 19 Becky Robinson 27.07, 21 Brenda Tiedtke 27.49, 22 Glenda Davies 28.09, 28 Eleri Goddard 29.57. Senior men and masters up to 59: 12 Matthew Anwyl 41.69 (2nd M35), 13 Dean Longley 42.04, 20 George Nicholls 43.25, 24 Neil Owen 44.42 (2nd M55), 35 Des Davies 47.27, 37 Paul Brandrick 48.20, 40 Lee Bailey 49.06, 50 Andrew Whitehouse 57.03. M60: 1 Griff Owens 32.48, 2 Steve Hatfield 39.44. M70: 1 Roger Harrison- Jones 30.33.

This Saturday the cross-country season comes to end locally with the final fixture of the Grand Prix Express North Wales League at Oswestry.