By Rob Cole
Dewi Griffiths will spearhead a group of four Welsh athletes at the European Cross Country Championships after they all qualified for the British team at the weekend.
The Swansea Harrier finished fourth in the Liverpool round of the British Athletics Cross Challenge Series at Sefton Park, which also doubled as the trial race for the European Championships, to clinch an automatic place for the event in Samorin, Slovakia, on 10 December.
Hot on the heels of his brilliant marathon debut in Frankfurt (2.09.49), which should earn him a trip to the European Championships next summer, he kept himself busy by running a Gwent Cross Country League match in preparation for Sefton Park.
Even though he has a 5,000 and 10,000 metre double to aim at in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April, 2018, Griffiths is in no mood to slow down. In the shape of his life, he wants to keep pushing to see how much more he can get out of himself rather than take a break.
“I’m in great shape and I know that it is going to take a good performance from anyone else to beat me at the moment. I fancied qualifying for the European Cross Country Championships and it was a good race,” he said.
Britain won the gold medal at last year’s event and one of the members of that triumphant squad, Ben Connor, ran one of the best races of his career to win in Liverpool. He emerged from the woods half way around the final lap with a significant lead, pulling away from Alex Teuten, Griffiths and Sam Stabler.
Connor maintained his advantage through to the finish, gliding over the wet and muddy sections which caught many runners out on the day, with Teuten surprising a few with his second place. Stabler, who had won the first round of the series in Cardiff, pipped Griffiths in the closing seconds for third with Andy Butchart 10 seconds further back in fifth place.
Having started here year by competing at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Cari Hughes booked her ticket to Slovakia by finishing third in the Junior Women’s race. European Junior 1500 metre champion Jake Heyward also made the grade as he followed up his win in the Junior Men’s race in Cardiff with a fourth placed finish.
The only surprise for Heyward was that he was beaten by another Welsh runner, Wrexham AC’s Matthew Willis. He came home in third place to ensure he will make his British debut next month.
Willis is a former winner in Liverpool and the Welsh Under 20 cross country champion. He is also a former English Schools and SIAB Champion.