Women
We were greeted by a glorious early spring day for the final fixture of the 2024/2025 season. For those of you with long memories, it was a stark contrast to February 2014 when eight people were hospitalised with hypothermia. It was something of a close-run thing for the women, but they did regain the league title, albeit by a slender margin of 32 points. The overall result was Bristol & West AC A team 1st with 6942 points, Park Bryn Bach 2nd with 6910 points, and Les Croupier 3rd with 6778 points. The B team finished first on the day and overall finished 4th in the B division. Congratulations to our two leading ladies, with Emma Clarke in 12th position overall and Tanya Chowdhury 60th, our only two women to run all five races. A total of 680 women competed in the league during the season.
Kat Entwistle had another heroic run. After falling off her bike (again!) earlier in the week and with the National Cross-Country the previous Sunday still in her legs, Kat finished 3rd in 22:17, only 12 seconds behind winner Gemma Tutton (Swansea). Bryony Shepherd moved through the field nicely, finishing 7th in 22:59, and then went off for a long ease down. Hopefully, after a 1500K bike ride around the west coast of New Zealand, she (and sister Maddy) will come back raring to go for the National 6 Stage Relay. Maria Jones made one of her rare cross-country outings and ran out of her socks to finish 21st in 23:56. On this form, she looks good to record some fast times on the track.
Next came three survivors from the National Cross-Country. Eleanor Carney, Ailish Craig, and Katie Strange ran in a group through most of the race, encouraging each other on. Katie was the strongest, finishing 24th in 24:12, Ailish 25th in 24:15, and Eleanor found the going tough over the last of the three laps. Jemima Chantel D'Arcy was with the group early on and held on to take 28th position in 24:36, a good 10 places higher than her first Gwent League at Blaise. Emma Clarke had a bad week for recovery from the National with work intervening. However, Emma clinched her 12th overall standing by finishing 34th in 25:07. Marine Soudais told me that she was still tired from the National where she had one of her best runs of the season. Despite real tiredness, Marine finished 47th in 25:48. Tanya Chowdhury was 12th W45 and 60th overall in 26:50, another with tired legs after the Nationals. Viccy Lambourne (W40) was our final runner and was apprehensive about making her Gwent League debut. I’d promised Viccy that she would have a fifth of the field behind her. In the event, it was a third of the field, with Viccy finishing 144th in 32:39. So, no worries there and no pressure, Viccy, next season!
Men
The men’s A team successfully defended their title, finishing first on the day and accumulating 9981 points over the season, 343 points clear of their nearest rivals, Park Bryn Bach. The B team also defended their B team divisional title, finishing 4th overall on the day and accumulating 9351 points over the season — a lead over their nearest rivals of 1161 points! The C team finished 2nd in the reserve division. The M35 team was first on the day and second overall. The M65 team was 5th out of 35 teams.
Individually, the club had an amazing six in the top 21 out of 914 men competing. Felix McGrath was 1st, Lee Gawler 5th, Maciej Bialogonski 6th, Aled Anderson 10th, Aaron Bruce 13th, Rob Pope 15th (and 2nd M45), and Robbie Stewart 21st.
Felix McGrath completed an outstanding season by running away with the race, taking the lead almost from the gun and building up around a 40-second lead by the finish (24:34). Owain Jones only committed to run on the day because he had not run during the week with sore Achilles tendons after the National Cross. Despite pain during the race, Owain held on to finish 4th in 25:35. Maciej Bialogonski, Lee Gawler, Aled Anderson, and Fraser Roach were running in a group early in the race. We knew Maciej was running well, but this was something special. He proved to be the strongest on the day, having a brilliant run, looking strong and composed throughout, finishing in 7th place in 26:13. Lee completed his season with another solid run, finishing in 11th place (26:26). What a season Lee has had — it could hardly have been better. Similarly, Aled, who recently graduated to a master, has had a season to remember. Here, Aled finished 14th in 26:45.
Fraser Roach led the B team home, despite being weary from his outstanding run in the National Cross-Country. Fraser finished 18th in 27:01. Aaron Bruce is another who has had a season of consistent improvement, finishing 26th in 27:33. Alistair Burleigh seems to have come through his encounter with the bogs on Parliament Hill fields with possibly his best run of the season, finishing 30th in 27:48. Rob Pope capped a memorable Gwent League campaign in 36th position (and 2nd M45) in 28:04. Completing the B team was newcomer Patrick Gibson, who made a commendable debut. I’d suggested to him that getting in the first 60 was a healthy target — mission accomplished in 44th position in 28:30.
Dan Perkins (U23) led the C team home. Dan, a 20-year-old newcomer to the club, was making his club debut. Dan can’t resist a challenge, and he stuck with Lee & company over the first two laps before fading slightly on the third lap. He picked it up again on the last lap to finish 47th in 28:30. Sam Johnson hadn’t been able to train over the last fortnight with a pesky cold. He ran his own race, finishing 83rd in 30:28. He’s looking forward to the track season. Club talisman, photographer, and taxi driver for a posse, Tarik Kurd, was back in action after a chronic injury problem. Tarik was happily waving to his cheering supporters through most of the race but notably put his foot on the accelerator on the last lap to finish 168th (15th M50) in 33:32. Simon Jones (M45), Matt Brown (M45), and debutante Jamie Melling ran together for most of the race. Simon took the honours, finishing 199th in 35:32, Matt was next in 35:33, with Jamie in 202nd place in 35:38. There were 273 finishers, so the trio had a quarter of the field behind them. They are getting better.
- Chris Elson
Comments