Gwent League Margam Park - 08/02/2025

Women

With the women taking silver medals at the Midland Championships a fortnight ago, gold (Katie Strange, Francesca Knapper, Sally Dodge & Paula Brown) at the Doynton Hard Half-Marathon last week, and so many focusing on their marathon preparations, did they have enough firepower to hold on to their cumulative lead?

It’s worth noting that Chelsea Baker, as part of her marathon program, did a parkrun yesterday. Rumor has it that someone had the temerity to shove her to one side at the start. That was enough to propel her to the fastest female parkrun time this week—17:12.

So, did they have enough firepower? Indeed, they did. Kat Entwistle sustained a career-threatening injury just short of a year ago. Yesterday, she produced nothing short of an amazing recovery by repeating her first-place finish at last year’s Margam Park fixture.

Elinor Matty (Park Bryn Bach) was the early leader, along with two other Bryn Bach ladies, with Kat tucked in behind them. This order was maintained for the first long lap, although Elinor had a slight lead by the beginning of the second. However, descending the long hill, I thought I could spot Kat in the lead, and as the runners came into clear view toward the finish, she had a good 50-metre lead.

Not to be outdone, our next four ladies all recorded their highest Gwent League finish positions by big margins. Ellie-Mae Barr and Emma Clarke ran together throughout the race, steadily moving through the field. Emma took the honors in 20th place, with Ellie-Mae just a few metres back in 21st. Marine Soudais was not far behind in 29th, with Amy Brammer in 33rd. So, big breakthroughs all around!

As a team, they finished third on the day but, importantly, held on to the cumulative lead with 5,942 points—a slender lead of 22 points over Les Croupier going into the final fixture in Brecon on Sunday, 2nd March. Nippy ladies, please take note.

Poppy Alexander made her Gwent League debut in style, finishing 47th, while Tanya Chowdhury, who is currently hampered by a niggling injury, finished a creditable 57th (12th W45).

Parliament Hill Fields on 22nd February—here they come.

Men

It was another remarkable day for the men, with the A team finishing first and extending their cumulative lead over Les Croupier to 263 points, and the B team finishing second on the day, extending their lead in the B division. Felix McGrath led the way from the start, building a 10-metre lead by the end of the first lap, which he extended to 45 seconds by the finish (29:49).

There was then a solid phalanx of B&W AC vests, led by the ever-improving Lea Gawler. The quintet of Lea, Robbie Stewart, Aled Anderson, Maciej Bialogonski, and Fraser Roach ran close together through most of the race, with Robbie and Lea oscillating in the lead. Lea was 8th (31:42), his highest league position ever; Robbie was 10th and first M40 (31:45); Aled 12th (32:00); Maciej 15th and second M35 (32:16); and Fraser 16th (32:20). That is good packing and an excellent result for the Bristol-based squad.

Aron Bruce had another solid run and was not far adrift of the phalanx, finishing 23rd (32:58). Dan Shepherd had been suffering from a chest infection, likely picked up on the flight back from a holiday in Sri Lanka. He did well, therefore, to finish 28th in 33:33. Alistair Burleigh demonstrated what a valuable asset he is becoming to the club, finishing as 4th M40 and 32nd overall in 33:47. Rob Pope was 3rd M45 and 39th overall in 34:68.

That left Matt Brown, who is gradually moving up the field, to finish 216th in 43:20, and Simon Jones, carrying a niggling injury, in 233rd position in 44:35. This means that the C team is hanging in the reserve division with a cumulative 5th position.

- Chris Elson