By Owen Morgan

A strong Welsh squad has been named to compete at next week’s prestigious Armagh International Road Races.

The men’s event is reputed to be one of the fastest 5ks in the world and along with the women’s 3k race, it attracts elite athletes from all over the world to the Northern Irish city.

At last year’s event, a record 113 competitors broke the 15 minute mark in the men’s 5k event won by Finland’s Topi Raitenen, while 49 women dipped under 10 minutes in the 3k race won by Great Britain international Steph Twell.

The Wales men’s team for next Thursday evening’s event, will feature the likes of Olympic hopefuls Dewi Griffiths and Jonny Hopkins.

Meanwhile, World University Cross Country Championships-bound Jenny Nesbitt, heads up the women’s team in the 3K race.

A junior men’s 3k squad will feature the likes of Welsh 3,000m under-17 record holder Osian Perrin.

Swansea Harrier Griffiths will be hoping to continue his return to fitness with some speed work ahead of April’s London Marathon where he will bid to secure a place on the Great Britain marathon team for the Tokyo Olympics.

Club mate Hopkins, who recently won the Welsh Indoor 1500m title, will also be hoping for a good run out to further his own ambitions of qualifying for the 3,000m steeplechase at the European Championships in Paris and the Olympics.

The senior men’s team is completed by Wrexham’s Matt Willis and Cardiff’s James Hunt, who have both impressed during the current British Athletics Cross Challenge series.

Willis won the under-20 races at the Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Liverpool events, which gained him a place on the Great Britain squad for the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, where he came home with a team gold medal.

Meanwhile, Hunt finished fifth in the senior men’s race at the Run Stirling British Athletics Cross Challenge last month.

The women’s squad will feature Cardiff’s Nesbitt, who next month travels to Morocco for the World University Cross Country Championships after finishing third at the recent British University championships in Edinburgh.

The Commonwealth Games competitor will be joined on Armagh city centre course by Leeds City athlete Bronwen Owen, who last month won the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships and Menai’s Anna Bracegirdle, who rounded off last year in fine style by finishing second in the Nos Galan race in Mountain Ash.

The women’s line up is completed by Cardiff’s Kate Seary who won the Welsh 1500m title at the end of last month.

Another young Welsh 1500m title holder will run in the junior men’s race. Cardiff’s Ben Reynolds the Welsh under-20 1500 and 800m titles at the National Indoor Athletics Centre on February 1.

Reynolds will be joined in the Welsh junior team by Menai athlete Perrin, who last summer broke the long standing Welsh under-17 3,000m record.

Morgan James and Samuel Roberts will complete the Welsh line up.