Bowden breaks record
ATHLETICS
ADAM BOWDEN pulled an early Christmas cracker last Saturday in recording a first sub-15-minute time in the Porthcawl Parkrun, writes Tony Poole.
The Harrow club member registered a time of 14 minutes 58 seconds to slice a tasty 15 seconds off the record.
Bowden, an Elite GB Triathlete, was making a Porthcawl Parkrun debut appearance and was later presented with the traditional stick of rock for record-breaking runners.
He was drawn to the Porthcawl event by his girlfriend who lives in Llantrisant.
The weekly Porthcawl Parkrun – from Porthcawl seafront to Rest Bay and back – was launched back in April 2013.
And the record was last broken back in August by Jonathan Hopkins with a time of 15:13.
The female record is held by GB Olympic Triathlon runner Helen Jenkins, posting 16:40 on August 15, 2015.
Last Saturday the 194th staging was designated Christmas Jumper Run and it attracted 232 com- petitors to the seaside town.
The runner-up was another first-time competitor, Matthew Evans (Aberdare Valley), in a time of 16:44.
The winner from the previous week, Elliot Cole (Leeds City AC), fired on this occasion 17:21.
Chris Jenkins, yet another first-time man, came fourth in 18:05 with the first competitor from a local club, seven-time winner Richard Dando (Bridgend), completing the 5k course in 18:30.
Identical times of 18:32 came from the unattached duo Morgan Freeman and Ben White with eighthplaced Matthew Edwards (Pencoed Tri Club) carding a personal best 18:46.
The other top-10 finishers were Daniel Glen (Bridgend) in 18:55 and Jordan Groves 19:08.
Top female and 15th overall was Lauren Cooper (Parc Bryn Bach) in 19:55 from Deborah Goule (Porthcawl Runners) 21:51.
Wilf Edwards (Porthcawl Runners) heads the annual points competition for men with 3,018 points and Deborah Goule tops the ladies event on 3,457.
This Saturday’s pre-Christmas Porthcawl Parkrun has a personal fancy dress theme attached to it.