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- Games Duo Griffiths And Jones Lead Home Challenge At Swansea Half
By Owen Morgan
Commonwealth Games duo and Swansea Harriers team-mates Josh Griffiths and Caryl Jones will spearhead the Welsh challenge at this weekend’s JCP Swansea Half Marathon.
Griffiths shot to fame at the 2017 London Marathon when he shocked the athletics world by outrunning the best of Britain’s distance runners in his first outing over the 26.2m distance.
Such was the unexpected nature of his top British placing, even the BBC’s normally unflappable athletics commentator Steve Cram was scrabbling around the commentary box for details of the Carmarthenshire-based runner as he approached the finishing line.
As a result, Griffiths went on to finish 30th at last year’s World Athletics Championships in London. And earlier this season he finished 15th at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games marathon.
Griffiths was third in the 2016 edition of the Swansea Half Marathon when he clocked a time of 68:44 in coming home behind Dewi Griffiths and Danal Desta.
Earlier this year, the self-trained athlete posted a half marathon personal best time of 65:18 at the Big Half Marathon in Greenwich, which incorporated the British Championships.
Fellow Swansea Harrier Jones also starred for Wales out in Australia, finishing eighth in the women’s marathon.
The 31-year-old, who combines her athletics career with working on the family farm and as an accountant is likely to be amongst the main contenders in the women’s field on Sunday having finished third in last year’s race in 77.52.
Apart from competing at the Commonwealths in April, Jones has won the Telford 10k and the Llanelli Half Marathon, as well as finishing fifth in a time of 73:28 at the Big Half Marathon.
The two Swansea Harriers won’t have everything their own way in their home city event with high quality fields entered for both the men’s and women’s elite races.
Cardiff AAC athlete Matt Clowes is in sizzling form this season having won the Llanelli Half Marathon in February in 65:15 and the Potters Arf Half Marathon in 66;53 earlier this month, as well as completing his first London Marathon in April.
One man who won’t be toeing the start line in Swansea is the three-time winner Dewi Griffiths, who is unlikely to race until the autumn as he recovers from the hip stress fracture which cruelly denied him a place on the Gold Coast.
The Swansea Harrier set a course record in last year’s race clocking 64:49.
The Welsh contingent in the men’s field will face a visiting threat from the likes of Lincoln Wellington’s Aaron Scott who has a PB of 65:50.
In the women’s race, another Welsh athlete in fine form is Natasha Cockram, of Micky Morris Racing Team, who this year has won the Gloucester Winter Half Marathon in a time of 79:03 and more recently set a Welsh Marathon All-Comers record in winning the ABP Newport Marathon in 2:44.58.
As in the men’s field, there will be a strong challenge from outside of Wales, including last year’s winner Claire Gibbons McCarthy. The Irishwoman clocked 74:35 in finishing first in 2017 and has a season’s best of 74:20 this year.
England’s Tracey Barlow will also be a major threat. The Thames Valley Harrier finished ninth at this year’s London Marathon and competed at the 2018 World Half Marathon Championship in Valencia, setting a PB of 72:35.
The fifth JCP Swansea Half Marathon will start at 9am on Sunday morning outside the city’s iconic Brangwyn Hall, with the wheelchair athletes setting off 10 minutes earlier.
More than 5,000 runners are expected to take part and will follow a new fast, flat and scenic route, which will hug the city’s stunning coastline before finishing on Adelaide Street near Museum Green.
