A STRONG contingent of Aberystwyth Athletic Club seniors and juniors headed to Wrexham for the second fixture in the North Wales Cross Country League.

The races are open to all abilities with all runners contributing to the scoring.

The senior men are second in Division 2, the male masters are 7th competing against the eight Division 1 teams as well as Division 2, and the senior women have leapt up the Division 2 standings to 12th.

In the junior races, Oli Lerigo did the blues proud in his under 15 race and finished in 13th place, the under 15 girls’ Gwen Tompsett finished 10th and Niamh Jennifer Curley 17th.

The Under 11 boys continue their domination the league and are in first place.

Team captain Edd Land was very pleased: “A fantastic show of blues at Wrexham and absolutely solid performances from everyone.

“It just goes to show how important, and how much of a difference having a big team of runners makes to the overall standings.

“The next fixture will be on home ground in Aberystwyth on Saturday, 30 November. The race is being jointly hosted by Aberystwyth AC and Aberystwyth University Harriers at Blaendolau Playing fields and the club would like to extend our thanks to Darren Hathaway and the university for backing the event, we hope to see lots of club runners and spectators there.”

There was also a strong Aber AC representation at the ever-popular Marathon Eryri on Saturday, 26 October.

The first part of the battle to run this marathon is to successfully get a ballot spot and 11 Aber AC runners accomplished that.

The second part is to undertake the months of marathon training which for a race in Snowdonia needs to include hills.

The training clearly paid off for the runners with the first Aber AC runner home being Owain Schiavone in 2:49:48, 11th overall and 4th in his age category, followed shortly after by Gruff Lewis in 3:00:29, following on from his ultra marathons and Dragon’s Back adventures Dave Powel crossed the line in 3:39:14 and 2nd place in his age category.

Roger Matthews was the next runner home in 4:05:34 and a few minutes later Dan Back set a personal best by 38 minutes to finish in 4:11:23 followed by Will Lerigo in a time of 4:41:50.

The first female Aber AC runner home was Sarah Nicholass a new member for the club in a time of 4:24:57, then Elaine Rowlands in 4:42:08, followed by Lyndsey Wheeler in 4:54:12; Theresa Sharland came home in 5:17:15, Chelsey Morris finished in 5:47:32.