ATHLETICS
ROWAN HOBBS maintained a spectacular run of form last Saturday with a fifth win in 63 visits to Porthcawl 5K Parkrun, writes Tony Poole.
In cold conditions along the course from Porthcawl seafront to Rest Bay and back, the Brackla Harriers runner clocked a personal best (pb) time of 17 minutes 41 seconds.
It bettered a previous best 17:45 that was registered in the 217th staging of the event back in May.
Last month Hobbs chalked up three consecutive wins in the Maesteg 5K Parkrun competition in the Welfare Park – and he started the Festive Season with another eyecatching win.
Incredibly, four out of the first-five finishers had pb against their names with the 243rd staging attracting 274 competitors.
Runner-up Jordan Groves (unattached) clocked pb 17:50 with Christopher Jeynes (Brackla Harriers) completing the course in 18:15.
Fourth-placed Dave Bennett (Porthcawl Runners) finished with a pb 18:43 from Alex Tudor Michael Thomas (unattached) pb 18:53.
Other runners inside the 20-minute barrier were Dafydd Jones (unattached) 18:58, Geraint Lewis (Porthcawl Runners) 19:14, Jeffrey Thomas (Bridgend) 19:19, Ian Ogilvie (Brackla Harriers) 19:22, Richard Self (Lew Croupiers) 19:46, Mark Bowen (Porthcawl Runners) 19:51 and Daniel Phipps (unattached) 19:56.
Top female and 18th overall was Deborah Goule 20:25 from Kat Angell (both Porthcawl Runners) pb 22:13 (39th), Fleur Jones (Cornelly Striders) 22:16 (42nd), Justine Dawkins (unattached) 22:24 (45th) and Jane Ogilvie (Brackla Harriers) 22:33 (49th).
MAESTEG 5K PARKRUN
TEENAGER Devin Coombes (Bridgend) showed up for a first time at Maesteg 5k Parkrun and ran off with a victory.
Young Coombes is the Bridgend 2k Junior Parkrun record-holder having last August clocked 6 mins 35 seconds.
His winning time at Maesteg was 18 minutes 29 seconds, and he finished 23 seconds in front of Adrian Pearce (unattached).
Third-placed Aled Hughes (Ogmore Phoenix Runners) recorded a pb 19:52, and was followed across the finishing line by three unattached compet- itors – Paul Kearns 21:24, Darren Griffiths pb 22:09 and Eifion Owen 22:16.
The other top-10 finishers were Paul Winstanley (Run4AllNeath) 22:23, Dave Malatynski (Leighton Fun Runners) 23:44, Toby Kearns (unattached) pb 24:33 and Nicky Harris (Ogmore Phoenix Runners) 24:35.
Top female and 13th overall was Sarah Littlewood (Ogmore Phoenix Runners) pb 25:58 from Laurie Williams (unattached) pb 26:06 (14th), Victoria Hillman (Ogmore Phoenix Runners) 27:07 (18th), Emma Williams pb 27:51 (20th) and Katy Kearns (both unattached) pb 29:15 (21st).
BRIDGEND JUNIOR 2K PARKRUN
DYLAN JONES last Sunday recorded a second win in Bridgend Junior 2k Parkrun staged in Newbridge Fields.
Cold conditions led to just 67 young runners facing the starter with young Jones equalling a personal best time of 8 minutes 38 seconds that was set when finishing third back in August during the 100th staging of the event.
In a close finish, Rory Griffiths (Ogmore Phoe- nix Runners) was a mere 10 seconds behind, and it represented a personal best together with a second runner-up spot in the event.
Third-placed Abraham Matthews-Winch also carded a pb time, in his case it was 8:54, with Finlay Griffiths (Ogmore Phoenix Runners) next to finish in 9:15.
The other top-10 places were occupied by Evan Jenkins 9:31, Elliot Jenkins 9:38, Benjamin Davies 9:41, top female finisher Scarlett Hodges 9:45, Katie Blower 9:55 and Grace James 10:02.
Seven other personal best times were set, and they came from Ava HydeJones, Chloe Jones, Daisy Cowan-Bayliss (Ogmore Phoenix Runners), Stanley Jones, William Mann, Rhys Roberts-Ablett and Elin Powell.