Gracie Griffiths Now Walking Same Road To Glory As Heather Warner And Bethan Davies

By Owen Morgan

Wales’ dominance of women’s race walking within the UK looks set to continue for the foreseeable future in the shape of Pembrokeshire Harrier Gracie Griffiths.

The 17-year-old is quite literally following in the footsteps of her coach Heather Warner and Bethan Davies – Britain’s outstanding race walkers of recent years.

Griffiths’ latest achievement was shattering Warner’s Welsh under-20 5,000m record at the annual under-20 international match in Cardiff on Saturday.

Griffiths led from gun to tape as she left the rest of the field in her wake – clocking a winning time of 23:36.03 to break Warner’s 11-year-old record.

The win also brought full points to the Welsh team – appropriately being managed on the day by Davies, who was second to Warner at this year’s British Athletics Championships where Griffiths herself finished fifth.