Debutante Eva stars as Harriers taste international action

A TRIO of Carmarthen Harriers endurance athletes headed to Belfast for the IAAF Northern Ireland International Cross Country match.

It incorporated the Celtic and Home Countries Cross Country International and the penultimate leg of the British Athletics Cross Challenge Series.

Athletes travelled to represent Welsh Athletics and Welsh Schools. It provided another opportunity for some of Wales’s most established endurance athletes to test themselves against high-calibre fields as Wales competed against Scotland, England, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Ysgol Bro Myrddin pupil Eva Edwards earned her first Welsh vest as part of the Welsh Schools’ under-20 women’s team. She put in an excellent performance which resulted in 33rd place in a time of 16:23. Edwards crossed as the second scorer for the WSAA squad.

Harriers coach Delyth Brown also played a part as one of two WSAA team managers with Zane Maynard.

The under-15 boys’ race featured two Harriers along with a few other members from Welsh clubs. Dafydd Jones and Liam Edwards (Bro Myrddin) led the field for Carmarthen and their long journeys to Ireland were rewarded with outstanding results.

Jones stormed to runners-up spot in the category in 10:19, just five seconds away from the overall winner. In a top-quality race, Edwards also came through strongly to clock 10:51 in 12th place and round off a promising start to 2019.

Elsewhere, Lewis Evans and Alicia Samuel were in action in the 60m sprint at the Cardiff Met University New Year Grand Prix in which more than 500 competed. Evans went in heat three and finished fifth in 7.22 seconds.

Samuel was ninth fastest women’s 60m heat in 7.84.

She went on to the final shortly after, running another time of under eight seconds against the other six fastest from the heats.

The 800m saw Iestyn Williams go in the second heat followed by Trystan Leech in race four. The pair ran times of 2:03:97 and 2:10:42 respectively in the under-20s age group. in the