Is It A Bird? . . . Is It A Plane? . . . No, It’s Chris Bird Winning The Newport Marathon

By James Candy

Chris Bird flew to victory in the ABP Newport Wales Marathon as he smashed the course record.

The Chichester runner triumphed in a course record time of 2 hrs, 31 min, 34 sec to win by two clear minutes from Otley AC’s Scott Harrington and strip 1 min, 44 sec off last year’s winning time.

“I was three seconds outside my PB in the Brighton Marathon three weeks ago and I wish I had waited for the Newport race to try to break it,” said the 36-year-old Bird. 

“When I ran in Brighton I went off at 2:26.00 pace, but I had a bit of a cold and I suffered as a result. I was hoping to go even faster here, but I felt a little bit tired,” said Bird.

“Adam Holland went off hard, but I finished hard. I hit the front at around 21 miles and, even though I was tying up a bit in the end, I was able to stay clear of the rest.”

Holland held a 300 metre lead at half-way as he went through 13 miles in 74 min, 30 sec. As the race wore on, fatigue set in and he slipped to fourth place overall.

“I paced someone in the London Marathon last weekend and finished in 2:57.00 and a few weeks ago I ran from John O’Groats to Land’s End. That was 876 miles in 17 days and I felt a bit of that in my legs,” said Holland.

“When I got to 15 miles I could feel that it just wasn’t there. Now I’ve got to get home and be ready to pace someone in the Milton Keynes Marathon on Monday.”

Newport has a new local hero after Carla Swithenbank won on her own doorstep as she moved up from third last year to triumph in the women’s race.

ABP Newport Wales Marathon Podium

Chris Bird 02:31:34
Scott Harrington 02:33:34
Gwylym Gibson 02:36:28

Carla Swithenbank 02:45:48
Alaw Beynon-Thomas 02:58:07
Francesca Rawlings 03:05:18 pic.twitter.com/rwAcLHvzti

— ABP Newport Wales Marathon (@NewportWales262) May 5, 2019

The 28-year-old former Police woman led from gun to tape as she knocked 24 seconds off her previous best time as she made it a double for the Mickey Morris Racing Club as she followed in the footsteps of the inaugural champions, Natasha Cockram.

“I’m bouncing after that,” admitted Swithenbank. “I’m so proud to have won my local marathon and when I woke up on the morning of the race and said to myself nobody is going to beat me today.

“I’m from Newport, I live in Newport and I wanted to win this more than anything. It’s great to have gone from third last year to winning it this time.

“Last year’s race was my marathon debut and I nearly didn’t bother entering. But then I thought, this is in my home town, so I had to give it a go.”

Swithenbank has gone from strength to strength since debuting over the 26 mile, 385 yard distance a year ago. She won the European Police women’s title in Dublin in 2018 in 2:46.13 and is getting faster and faster.

A former Wales international footballer, she quit Cardiff City Ladies when she was 21 and has since been concentrating on running. Married to a soldier, Nick, for the past four years, she now works in customer services at Welsh Water in St Mellons.

Her winning time this weekend was 5 mins, 47 sec quicker than she ran last year and she had a 12 min, 19 sec winning gap over Swansea Harrier Alaw Beynon-Thomas, who came home in 2:58.07 on her marathon debut.

Marathon Results

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