Close-fought victory for Martin Green at latest Conwy Parkrun

Report by Don Hale. Most photos by Steve Jeffery

North Wales Road Runner Martin Green celebrated an impressive but hard-earned victory at the Conwy Parkrun last Saturday.

But he had to fight vigorously all the way over this challenging 5k course, with club colleague Mark Jessett in close pursuit and just 11 seconds adrift and Colwyn Bay youngster Alfie Shirland only three seconds further back.

NWRRC entered 17 athletes, including two juniors, and collected five age category wins in a very fast event with the first 14 runners all dipping under the 20-minute mark.

Martin Green eventually claimed the top-spot in 17.37, and also won his M45 age cat, with Mark Jessett 2nd and best 35-39 in 17.48 and Alfie Shirland 3rd and 1st JM11-14 in 17.53. The club had four runners in the top 10.

Harry Driscoll won his SM20 cat with a determined display, finishing 7th overall in 19.17, and he too was pushed to the limit by club-mate Chris Davies, 9th in 19.34. Stuart Culverhouse was 21st and 3rd MV50 in 20.42, with Steve Roberts 31st in 21.55.

Kay Hatton had a great run to win her VW55 cat, finishing 44th overall and she was 4th female runner in 23.23, with youngster Joe Culverhouse finishing 66th in 24.46.

And it was great to see Elizabeth Driscoll back on home soil again following her six-month deployment to the Falkland Islands with the RAF. Elizabeth claimed second spot in her VW55 age cat and finished 91st overall in 26.07.

Tony Price Jones continued with his return from injury, finishing 78th in 25.21, and it was a close-run thing for three NWRRC master veterans who claimed all three MV65 age cat placings with Rob Fryer home in 97th, and the cat winner in 26.24, whilst Don Hale made his first parkrun appearance since before Easter due to injury, ending up 2nd in the same cat in 98th place in 26.42, and Len Jackson, making his debut in this higher age group, finished 3rd and 107th overall in 27.31.

Junior runner Ben Spofforth ran with his father Dave and finished 2nd in his JM10 age cat in 111th place in 27.35, veteran Mike Smith was 168th in 33.23, with Steve Mason having to walk the course with his dog again due to injury, finishing in 225th place in 1.12.10.
*This is the link to the provisional results from Conwy Parkrun:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/latestresults/

Wirral

Jon Evans enjoyed a great performance in the Wirral Seaside midweek series of races and recorded a personal course record of 20.24, finishing 54th overall and 2nd in his MV55 age cat.

Portobello

Steve Forsyth finished 5th at the Portobello Parkrun in Edinburgh last Saturday with a fast time of 17 minutes and 9 seconds to win his MV40 age cat.

New races

Next week marks the launch of a major programme of highly competitive races starting with the Llanrug 5k on June 8, which is part of the North Wales road championships, followed by the Rhyl Half Marathon on June 18, the Deganwy Dash on June 24, Felinheli 10k on June 29 and the Fairy Freckled Cow Trail championships on July 3.