News Report 19th February 2007

Twelve months of endeavour were recognised last Friday night as members of Bro Dysynni Athletics Club gathered at the George 3rd Hotel in Penmaenpool for the clubs annual presentation evening.

Various categories were recognised, from road running to cross-country to fell running, the club being very competitive in each of these chosen disciplines. The 'blue riband' award for Bro Dysynni is traditionally the road running handicap trophy, always a fiercely contested award, competed for over 20 road running events throughout the year. The winner for 2006 was Sheila Symonds of Dolgellau, having an 'Indian Summer' to her long running career. Unfortunately, Sheila was unable to be present on the night, neither was the runner-up, Bob Chilton of Hermon, who surely would have won the award had he stayed free from injury over the course of the long season. In third place was previous handicap trophy winner, Malcolm Taylor of Criccieth.

The cross-country handicap awards were won by Barrie Jackson of Bala and Marj Griffiths of Aberystwyth respectively, a fitting reward for their excellent attendance at the cross-country fixtures, often run in the most inclement of conditions.

The fell running handicap trophies were won by Steve Gilliland of Llwyngwril and Juliet Edwards of Dolgellau whilst the midweek road running handicap award was fiercely contested, with Barrie Jackson soon needing a larger trophy cabinet as he won the male category, whilst Marit Evans of Dolgellau and Kate Williams of Aberdyfi shared the female category.

The 'best % performance' awards for single race success were won by Brenda Jones of Llanelltyd and Steve Gilliland of Llwyngwril.

Various merit awards were also presented to club members for their ongoing endevours in relation to the continuity of the running club.

With the final fixture of the Majestic Travel North Wales Cross Country League at Oswestry having recently been postponed due to bad weather, the league organisers have taken the decision not to re-organise the event due to a busy racing schedule in the weeks ahead. This means that the standings after 4 events will also represent the final league standings. As a result of this, Dysynni achieved three age category successes in the end of season standings as Marj Griffiths and Brenda Jones were victorious in the female over-60 and over-65 categories respectively, whilst Barrie Jackson claimed 2nd place in the male over-65 category. In the final league standings, the Dysynni ladies finished in 7th position in Division 2 whilst the men finished in 10th position, again in their respective 2nd division.

A.Unwin