sitting in a Podium position
The event of the week had no competition for the headline – the second fixture in the BCRL was our focus.
BCRL – 24th May
Kate’s words about this race might resemble a series of characters $”@*!?” that we won’t spell out. She took an unfortunate fall not long after the starting gun, ending up in a bed of nettles. It’s safe to say she didn’t continue running, and didn’t get much sleep that night.
The rest of our team thankfully avoided trouble, trips and falls.
Bridgend Athletics held on to their 3rd place in the team standings. Richard Dando was first over the line for us in 6th, with Geoffrey nipping close behind in 7th, 5 seconds back.
It was a treat to see second-claim member Beth Hardman in our yellow and blue hoops. And great to see Jon Parry make his racing debut for us – plenty more to come.
Team standings
Bridgend Athletics 3rd with 1035
Don’t they look good - team photo from Kenfig.
A home competition - 28th May
Young athletes report from Richard Dando:
After the junior athletics meeting at Neath scheduled for Saturday 28th May was cancelled the day before, the brilliant team of Bridgend AC coaches & volunteers hastily arranged a club track & field fun day for our juniors.
From long jump & high jump, to shot and discuss, to 75m and 200m sprints, to 800m and 1500m endurance races - there was something for everyone. The last event was a mixed aged relay which went down well with all the kids. In between all the track & field fun there was a family game of rounders with ice creams & the day finished with pizza and chips.
For some of our newer junior members it was their first experience of a track & field event and judging by the smiles it was a great success.
A big thanks to all the coaches, volunteers & parents that helped put the event on in such short notice - and well done to all the juniors for their brilliant performances. Good luck for the rest of the summer track & field season.
Our junior squad
Swansea 5k – 29th May
With the offering of free places, there was a four-strong club turnout for the Swansea 5k. Organised by Activity Wales Events, it was part of a busy day’s competition including a triathlon.
Everyone negotiated the steps successfully. Phew.
Results (you might need to pick the event from the dropdown menu)
4th Richard Dando 18:19 (1st vet)
16th Nick Stocker 20:46
20th Georgie Dando 21:04 (1st vet)
22nd Deryl Stephens 21:36
71 finishers
Sorry if we missed anyone, we couldn’t filter results by Bridgend Athletics
Swansea tri – 29th May
At the aforementioned triathlon, Jon Parry swam, biked, and ran again (in prep for Long Course Weekend, in Tenby, we believe)
91st Jon Parry 1:17:38.7
Beast of Bryn – 29th May
Tuesday edit to drop in Gareth Hardman’s race report:
Sunday 29th of May saw a number of BAC runners travel up to the lovely Afan Valley to take on the “Beast of Bryn” 15 mile trail race. This was the first running of the event for 7 years – not run since the unfortunate incident where the marshal didn’t turn up at the turn-around point on a kids race…This resulted in most of the kids heading off down a railway track and being “rescued” by the Mountain Rescue Land Rover when the parents didn’t see their loved ones return after a worrying length of time. I was there that day – 9 year old Bethan had great fun in the Land Rover has to be said. This incident made the local papers and BBC Wales news at the time – so I guess the original organisers have had to keep a low profile for a while!
This year’s event, now under new stewardship, seemed to go off without any obvious hitch – in fact very well organised from what I saw – the complimentary alcohol free beers put on by brewery sponsors Days a very welcome alternative to Brecon Carreg sprint water! The route was mostly on forest trails with plenty of arrows and marshals, and sufficient water stations.
The weather has been dry in the main for the last few weeks, so the course, whilst very hilly, wasn’t overly muddy – and Andrew Tuckey, running on his birthday, choosing to run in ordinary running shoes, wasn’t impacted for lack of grip, coming in second place overall. He suggested he was running to test out the legs prior to Welsh Castles Relay – I think his selection for Leg 10 was justified based on this performance….
The run heads south of the village of Bryn to start with, up around the Cwmwernderi Reservoir, back into the Afan Valley, before doing another big loop to the north of Bryn, taking in sections of the Afan Argoed Forest Park.
Big thanks to the Morgan Tribe for the full support – but it was in their back yard I guess. Well done to Josh (who came 6th) and Ruth Davies (coming 4th Female) for running the “6 mile” race. This was essentially the first half of the main race and was about 7.1 according to Josh’s watch… – so no ordinary 10k for sure!
2nd Andrew Tuckey 1:46:00 (1st v45)
30th Simon Osborne 2:06:52 (1st v60)
38th Gareth Hardman 2:11:33 (3rd v55)
49th Dan Morgan 2:15:29
93rd Gina Hardman 2:31:38
140th James Matthews 2:43:46
Team photo
Most recent parkrun results
At this Saturday’s parkrun Krista has made it to 80 and counting. Richard made it two 5ks in two days, starting with Porthcawl parkrun. With another 17 club members in action.
Let us know if we’ve missed your result, and if you’re up for writing a report sometime – it’s a team effort.
Leigh James was this week’s reporter. Boosted by reports from Richard Dando and Gareth Hardman - thank you.
Photos by Josh Morgan, Cath Hayes, Krista Humphrey, and Alison Allen.