Battle royal to be crowned Snowdon king

THE 36th edition of the Snowdonia Marathon Eryri is ready to welcome 3,000 runners from all over the world to Llanberis this Saturday.

This year, a record number of runners will take on some of the most testing terrain imaginable for a road marathon as they ascend and descend through the scenery of Bwlch Llanberis and Nant Gwynant to name but two of the race’s breathtaking scenic treats.

The race proudly boasts to have had some of the greatest battles and performances over the years, from some of the UK’s top mountain and marathon runners.

Names such as Jeff Norman, Martin Cox, Rob Samuel, Andrea Rowlands and Lizzy Hawker have graced the event, with Norman’s time of 2:28:02 from 1985 surely ranking as one of the great marathon performances in the UK from the last four decades.

This year, returning champion Dan Jones will go head-to-head with 2016 winner Russell Bentley, pictured, in whatwhat promises to be a great battle onon the roads of Snowdonia.

Local-man Bentley has been rounding into some great form after completing the Berlin Marathon in September, finishing second at the Chester Marathon in early October and running a season’s best half marathon timeime of 68:26 in Manchester last weekend.

Jones has had some solid autumn performances and, after finishing second to Bentley in 2016, he returned to take the title in emphatic style last year.

An interesting entrant in the men’s race is Julius Mwangi. The Kenyan runner was a 2:15 marathoner back in 2004, but has raced lightly in the last couple of years.

Former winner Andrea Rowlands is looking to take yet another women’s crown. The Eryri Harrier has had a great season over ultra-distances, winning both the Snowdonia Trail Ultra and Ultra Trail Wales this summer and will be difficult to beat on a course she knows very well.

Race evergreen Iorwerth Roberts will also be back for his 36th race, as the 75 year-old is the only runner to have competed in every single event since 1982.

A recent win at the Bangor Half Marathon showed that the Glan Conwy man is once again ready to take on Eryri.