Five age category victories for North Wales Road Runners at Conwy Parkrun

Dave Spofforth put in a great performance at the Conwy Parkrun – as the contended look on his face suggests

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery

Numbers were down for regulars at Conwy Parkrun last Saturday due to various reasons including the rough weather and several fixture clashes, yet this popular 5k still attracted tourists from as far afield as Davenport, Rochdale, Newbury and Pontypridd.

North Wales Road Runners entered seven athletes this week and five claimed age category wins, with two others finishing in third places. And both the male and female first finishers positions were won by husband and wife, Martin and Carla Green.

The wet and very blustery conditions didn’t seem to affect Martin Green, who was first runner back again to record a hat-trick of successive victories, and he also won his MV45-49 age cat in 18 minutes 56 seconds.

David Spofforth ran very well to finish in 4th place, and he was 1st in his MV40-44 cat in 21.15, with Carla Green 7th overall and the 1st female runner, easily winning her VW50-54 age cat in 21.39. Jamie Tharme continued to impress, coming home 12th and 3rd MV40-45 cat in 22.49.

Jamie Tharme (left) was delighted to race alongside Pat from the Foo Fighters

Joe Culverhouse and his dad Stuart ran together and took 18th and 19th places respectively, with Joe winning his JM11-14 cat and Stuart 3rd in his MV50-54 cat in 23.18, whilst master vet Don Hale topped his M65-69 age cat in 25.34, finishing 37th overall.

Son and dad Joe and Stuart Culverhouse

*The challenging conditions kept the finishing times well down with just two runners dipping under the 20-minute mark, and the first three runners home included: 1st Martin Green (NWRRC), 1st MV45-49 in 18.56; 2nd Andy Savage (Cybi Striders), 1st MV50-54 in 19.26; and 3rd James Williams (Lymm Runners), 2nd MV50-54 in 20.34. There were 120 finishers.

*This is the link to the provisional results to the Conwy Parkrun:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/latestresults/

Course record broken at Conwy Fell Race

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery

It proved to be a very fast finish for the first two Welsh International runners at last Saturday’s Conwy Fell Race.

Matthew Roberts broke the 2019 course record to win in 41 minutes 30 seconds, and he was just one second ahead of the previous holder Gavin Roberts in 41.31.

Matthew (CUPR) also won his MV40 age cat, with Gavin (Calder Valley Fell Runners) winning his MO class, and Joel Gomes (Wrexham) finishing in 3rd place and 2nd in his M40 cat in 43.53. The first female was Katie Davies (Staffordshire Moorlands), 24th overall in 43.53.

Josh Keogh (grey) in action at the Conwy Fell Race

North Wales Road Runners entered two athletes with Josh Keogh finishing 10th in 48.33, with Karl Morris 38th in 58.44. The event was run over a challenging 5-mile course with 1,650ft of elevation and attracted 75 runners.

Race organiser Michael Corrales later said: “The race was very good, and very smooth. The conditions were better than forecast and it was very dry underfoot making it a fast race. Matthew Roberts broke Gavin Roberts (2nd by one second) course record (two Welsh internationals).”