Athletes turn up the 'Heat' in Great Wales Run

• Posted by Matthew Jones at 2:11 PM | add or read comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hot conditions greeted the runners in the Great Wales Run 10km at the weekend. However, many Welsh athletes defied the boiling conditions and managed to record so many personal bests.
Welsh Internationals Michael Johnson and Alex Hains will be delighted with their showings on home soil.
Johnson broke the 30-minute barrier for the first time in his career, while Hains made his return to the road racing scene and was delighted with his performance after clocking 30:26.
Spectators witnessed possibly the fastest ever 10km on a Welsh course with Eshetu Wondimu of Qutar being the first man home in 27:45, while the first woman was Rita Jeptoo of Ethopia, who ran 31:36, a course record by a massive 46 seconds. This was a fantastic run out before she headed out to Bejing for the Olympic Marathon.
Teenager Dewi Griffiths ran an superb debut 10k of 31:54 and will be looking to build on this in the coming months with big competitions on the horizon.
In the women's race, Shan Morgan broke 37 mins for the first time, yet despite a few encouraging performances, it was a disappointing turnout overall in the women's race.
Former World Marathon Record Holder Steve Jones who was running for Cystic Fibrosis was happy to run around the 10km course with current Welsh International James Thie.
Commonwealth games athlete Chris Davies, who trains and competes regularly in North Wales was hoping to run close to 29 minutes but unfortunately had to drop out towards the end, while the experienced Catherine Dugdale decided last minute not to run.