Bright and breezy with close finish at Conwy Parkrun

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery

Some 267 runners of all shapes, sizes, ages and mixed abilities tackled the Conwy Parkrun last Saturday (August 20) amidst bright but very breezy conditions in stark contrast to the blistering heat of the previous week.

In addition to the many social runners, this popular event again attracted a generous mix of young and promising athletes, together with numerous top club runners, who all seemed determined to test their abilities over this challenging 5k course.

Exciting local teenage prospect Morgan Kendall was the first runner home to celebrate his third parkrun victory at Conwy, and his 90th parkrun overall, but this time he also recorded a great new PB of just 17 minutes and 38 seconds to win his SM18-19 age category.

Morgan was pushed all the way by Martin Green (NWRRC) and Nic Brook (Eryri Harriers), who both gave him a hard chase and finished in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

Martin was only 15 seconds behind the leader, but won his MV45 cat in 17.53, with Nic third overall in 18.05 and second in his age cat behind Martin.

North Wales Road Runners only had eight club entrants due to other race commitments but still claimed five podium places including three age cat wins.

Martin Green led the team home with Harry Driscoll next in 14th place and 2nd in his SM20 in 20.12.

And Carla Green made it a family age cat double as the 1st female runner home, and 1st in her VW50 cat, finishing in 36th place overall in 22.52. Carla enjoyed a fine run, and she was just 7 seconds ahead of rival Gemma Moore (Eryri Harriers) in 22.59.

Veteran Rob Fryer was 3rd in his MV65 cat and finished in 89th place in 25.43, with Sue Smith 160th and 3rd in her VW55 cat in 30.04, whilst Gwennan Charlton took 165th place in 30.18.

Dave Spofforth ran with his son Ben, and he also included Ben’s young friend and parkrun debutant Henry Moncrief. Ben finished in 172nd place and won his JM10 age cat in 31.00, whilst Henry ran well and claimed the 2nd spot in the same junior age cat, finishing 178th in 31.29, with Dave just one second and one place behind him as a chaperone. Mike Smith ran home in 199th place in 33.05.

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