By Owen Morgan

The muddy cross country trails of Llandaff Fields may not quite have been the green, green grass of home for Mike Ward, but the Cardiff-born runner was delighted to be back on home soil last Saturday.

The Cardiff AC athlete, who is back in Britain after spending the past five years studying and competing successfully in the United States, is now setting his sights on a place in Wales’ team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Last weekend’s Cardiff Cross Challenge proved to be the ideal event for Ward to make his competitive return on Welsh soil as he finished third in a top quality field gathered from around the United Kingdom.

Despite not having fully returned to his full training regime since returning from across the pond, Ward was the first Welsh runner home, beating a strong domestic contingent including in-form Cardiff club-mates Ciaran Lewis and James Hunt, and Great Britain international steeplechasers Ieuan Thomas and Jon Hopkins.

The overall winner in the men’s senior race was Marc Scott, fresh from representing Great Britain at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.

The Cambridge and Coleridge AC man claimed the first leg of the British Athletics Cross Challenge in a time of 29:21, with defending series champion Mahamed Mahamed second in 29:27

Commenting on his third place time of 29:47, Ward said: “I’m pretty happy. To be honest I wasn’t actually sure whether I was going to be here or not.

“I’ve been away in the States for the past five years, so I was like ‘I have to get a run on home soil sooner or later’.

“It was one of those where I didn’t really know what kind of shape I was in. I haven’t really got into the swing of things in training, but I think in the mud, the Welsh is still there! The mud helped me out today, so I’m pretty happy with it.”

The weekend before, Ward had been in action as part of the Cardiff AC team which finished fourth at the National Road Relays in Birmingham’s Sutton Park, coming home third overall on his individual leg.

The former Llanishen High School pupil has returned to the UK in order to study dentistry at Birmingham University, but also harbours ambitions to establish himself on the British Universities circuit as well as catch the eye of Welsh selectors on the domestic scene.

“I’m back to stay, studying dentistry, working towards that and trying to put a couple of years together hopefully for the Commonwealth Games.

“Now I’m at the University of Birmingham, BUCS is definitely on the radar and the Welsh Champs – haven’t been able to do that in a while – so that’s definitely on the radar.”

The versatile middle distance athlete has yet to decide which discipline to target on the track.

 

Leaders over the Cardiff across Log #CrossTheLog #MuddyBrilliant pic.twitter.com/hlypAZXQD0

— Cardiff Cross Challenge (@CrossCardiff) October 12, 2019

“That’s the big question, at the moment, “ he said: “I’ve got an array of decent times so I’ll try to narrow it down and choose, at the moment probably the 5k or 10k.”

More immediately, he is hoping his performance at the Cardiff leg of the British Cross Challenge will stand him in good stead for next month’s Liverpool leg, which will also act as a trial for December’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon.

Asked what his cross country goals were, Ward said: “Honestly, just enjoy it and get back into it and  Liverpool, you never know, there’s possibly a GB vest up for grabs there, so keep working towards that and see what happens.”

Ward described his time running and studying at Bradley University in Illinois as one of the best decisions he has made.

During his time in the States Ward was a six-time Missouri Valley Conference Track & Field champion, and a two-time All-Region performer in cross country.  He twice competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Cross Country championships in addition to being a six-time qualifier for the NCAA West Preliminary on the track outdoors.

However, he said he was delighted to be back on home soil, especially competing in his home city.

“I’m loving it, the family’s come out to watch me, I haven’t been able to have this kind of support for a while, so it definitely helped push me around out there today.”