By Owen Morgan

A strong contingent of Welsh athletes will be battling for domestic titles and Great Britain team places for September’s World Championships when they line up in the elite field at this year’s Virgin London Marathon.

Among the confirmed elite athletes, there will be London debuts for Natasha Cockram and Dewi Griffiths, while Kris Jones will be running his first ever marathon.

Josh Griffiths and Andy Davies will be returning to familiar and fond surroundings in the capital on April 28th.

The Welsh elite entries, announced 100 days before the marathon, should make for an interesting battle for the Welsh and British Championships, which are incorporated into the race, along with the trial for the Great Britain team for the World Athletics Championships in 2019.

Josh Griffiths took the race by storm in 2017, when he emerged from the non-elite entrants to shock the athletics community and finish as the top British athlete, clinching his place at that summer’s London World Athletics Championships with a time of 2:14.49.

After being named in this year’s elite race, Griffiths said: “I’m really looking forward to it, it will be nice to be back after not being able to race there last year, so I’m really looking forward to it.

“I’ve got a couple of races before then to look forward to as well – a couple of half marathons and potentially a 10k to prepare for London, but London’s the big game.

“It was a brilliant race for me in 2017 so I’ll be looking forward to going back there and giving it another shot.”

“2017 was a great race and I gained a lot of things from it but 2019’s a new year and I’ve got new aims. It’s time to move on from 2017 and run a good London again.

“I feel like I’m running pretty well, I had a good 10k the other day. But I’m looking forward to these two half marathons in the build-up to really tell me what kind of shape I’m in. Then I can focus a bit more on my specific goal for London.”

As a result of his performance in 2017, the Carmarthenshire runner went on to represent Great Britain at the World Athletics Championships in London.

Also wearing the Great Britain vest at those games was mid-Wales-based Andy Davies, who finished in 31st place, ahead of Griffiths in 39thplace.

Stockport Harrier Davies also has fond memories of the 2017 London Marathon as he clocked a PB of 2:15.11. Last November he ran 2:20.23 at the New York Marathon.

Both Davies and Griffiths represented Wales at last year’s Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast. In extremely hot conditions, they finished in 11th and 15th positions respectively.

Also in the men’s 2019 London elite field will be Kris Jones, who has yet to run a marathon but ran a half marathon personal best of 63:55 at the Commonwealth Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff last October and is enjoying an excellent cross country season having represented GB twice.

Jones will be joined on the start line by fellow Swansea Harrier Dewi Griffiths, who ran a remarkable time of 2:09.49 on his marathon debut in Frankfurt in 2017.

This will be Griffiths’ first opportunity to build on that promising marathon after he missed much of last year with a hip injury which ruled him out of the Commonwealth Games and the summer track season.

However, since his return to competition in the second half of last year, he has looked in fine form over the shorter distances, clocking 62.56 at the Commonwealth Half Marathon and is running in this Sunday’s Houston Half Marathon.

Another Welsh athlete who is competing in Houston this weekend will be lining up in the elite field at the London Marathon – Natasha Cockram.

The Mickey Morris Racing Team athlete enjoyed a spectacular introduction into competitive marathon running last year.

Cockram won the Newport Marathon on her debut over the distance in a time of 2:44.58 and then smashed that time a few months later in Dublin where she clocked 2:35.47 – a time which puts her inside the IAAF qualifying time of 2:37.00 for the World Championships in Doha this September.

Three of the Welsh male runners also have PBs inside the men’s qualifying standard of 2:16.00.

Josh Griffiths says this is an indication of the increasing strength of Welsh endurance running.

The Swansea Harrier said: “Welsh endurance running has come on a lot, to have three guys all capable of running under 2:16, that hasn’t happened in a Welsh Championship for I don’t know how many years, if ever.

“It’s going to be really competitive for the Welsh Championships positions, and then you’ve got the British Championships as well with a brilliant field, so it’s really cool to be a part of it.”

With the likes of world record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Mary Keitany at the head of the star-studded men’s and women’s elite fields, along with top British runners like Mo Farah, Andy Vernon, Callum Hawkins, Lily Partridge, Tracey Barlow and Charlotte Purdue also taking part, Griffiths says there will be a number of battles within battles on the streets of London.

“Obviously, the London Marathon is the race, but there’s lots of smaller races within the race. You’ve got the guys at the front, you’ve got the Welsh Championships, the British Championships . . . there’s lots of mini-battles going on throughout the field, so it should be a good day.”

There will also be plenty of other top quality Welsh club runners competing outside of the elite field dreaming of emulating Griffiths remarkable feat of two years ago.