ATHLETICS
JAMES Carpenter hammered his way to another Porthcawl Parkrun 5k victory last Saturday, writes Tony Poole.
He garnished a third win in seven event starts with a personal best time of 16mins 45secs which chiselled seven seconds off his previous best.
A sunny morning along the Wales Coastal Path attracted 382 runners to the 212th staging with Andrew Hodgson (Bridgend) runner-up in a time of 17:27.
Another Bridgend competitor, John Dixon, came third in 17:56 ahead of James Pearce (Lliswerry Runners) who clocked a personal best 18:26.
The remainder of the 10-top places were occupied by Sean Lewis (Brackla Harriers) 18:29, Joshua Audsley (unattached) 18:30, Dave Dickson 18:52, Dave Bennett (both Porthcawl Runners) pb 18:53, Philip Welch pb 18:59 and Stephen David Jenkins (both Bridgend) 19:08.
Other sub-20 minute times came from Dan Glen (Bridgend) 19:10, firsttimer James McLaughlin 19:13, Mark Emery (Bridgend) 19:15, Niki Puleio (Cwm Ogwr Runners) 19:17, Paul Speyer (Brackla Harriers) 19:26, Jack Evans (unattached) 19:35, first-timer Joshua Moorland (unattached), Ian Ogilvie (Brackla Harriers) 19:46, Ryan Bowen pb 19:47, Jesse Coombs (both unattached) pb 19:47, Rob Hunt (Bridgend) 19:51 and Steve Hogan (Cornelly Striders) 19:53.
First female home was 52nd-placed Linda Alexandra Woodland (Port Talbot Harriers) in 22:12 from Rachel Hopkins pb 22:50 and Angela F Morris 22:57.
On Sunday, Anna-Rose Merchant took the 85th staging of the Bridgend Junior 2k Parkrun in Newbridge Fields.
It was the young Bridgend runner’s third victory in the event, and a winning time of 8mins 23secs was 24 seconds outside her best.
Runner-up Joshua Morgan (Bridgend) clocked 8:52 with two Bridgend girls, Georgia Smele (8:53) and Ami Fraser (9:06), both recording personal best times.
Other fine runs came from Finley Taylor 9:20, Mari Gibson 9:27, Carys Griffiths-Cole 9:32, Jessica Crawley (Bridgend) 9:35, Maya Bilal pb 9:37, Mia Amerein pb 9:50, Abigail Morgan 9:53 and Vincent Borg pb 9:56.
There were 17 other personal best times, and they came from Lucas Merchant, Taylor Fraser, Dylan Maus, Izabella Evans, Elin Dickson, Eloise Neenan, Eli Nugent, Ewan Gill, Bria Harvey, George Evans (Cwm Ogwr Running Club), Sian Murphy, Jenny Payne, Oliver Evans, Abigail Hendry, Isla Horrex, Ben Hatterell and Alfie Harding.