News Report 25th August 2008

Having moved from his native North Wales to New Zealand almost five years ago, there has been continued recent success for Adrian Bailey, erstwhile of Barmouth, but now based in Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand.

The latest success for the former member of Bro Dysynni A.C. came at the 50k event held as part of the Great Naseby Water Race Ultramarathon. The race was held at altitude, as Naseby, a town within the Central Otago region of the South Island, is the highest town within New Zealand at 2,000 feet above sea level.

The altitude posed little or no problem to the North Walian who covered the 5 lap event, held on a mixture of gravel road and forest track, in a time of 3hrs 41.26mins, which also set a new course record for the course.

Much closer to home, a trio of Bro Dysynni athletes headed to Montgomery recently to take part in the 4.5 mile Neil Howells Memorial Race, once again a race held over a multi-terrain surface. The trio were led home by Malcolm Taylor of Criccieth in a time of 40.29mins, with team-mates Marj Griffiths of Aberystwyth and Sheila Symonds of Dolgellau following in respective times of 50.49mins & 61.54mins.

Also recently, two athletes took part in a race held totally on sand. The race was the Borth 10k Beach Run and battling the elements on this occasion were Frankie Vaughan of Corris, the Meirionnydd Running Club member leading home the Male Over-50 competitors in a time of 46.13mins whilst a busy Marj Griffiths followed in a time of 63.34mins.

A.Unwin