Brecon Athletics Club has once shown the strength of its young competitors with a host of medal-winning performances on display last weekend.

A great set of results were enjoyed across the board for all the athletes from the club, as they competing for Powys Schools at the Welsh Schools Cross Country Championships at Penlan on Saturday, February 12.

Almost all of the athletes came away happy with their performance and as well as one individual and four team medals there will be at least two and possibly three athletes in the Welsh Schools international teams at the end of March.

First out of the start pens were the junior girls with Powys having three very strong individuals that included Ruby Herdman, from Brecon High School, who qualified as third best at Newtown recently.

Ruby was in no mood to allow the North Powys girls to beat her on home turf and went out strongly behind just the Swansea athlete who has been smashing track records indoor and out.

Ruby held second place until deep into the second lap when an athlete from Cardiff just nudged ahead of her.

Third place represents an outstanding result for Ruby, and leads to an auto-selection for the Schools International Athletic Board (SIAB) international in March, along with the North Powys athletes who finished fourth and fith.

Brecon High School’s Ruby Herdman came third in her cross country race, meaning automatic qualification for an SIAB international event next month.
Brecon High School’s Ruby Herdman came third in her cross country race, meaning automatic qualification for an SIAB international event next month. (Supplied by Patrick Edwards)

Lilwen Banning (Brecon High School) and Charlotte Lewis (Gwernyfed High School) were relatively late additions to the team and both ran well and made a positive contribution to the Powys performance.

Joe Edwards (Christ College) had won the Powys Schools Championship by a large margin 10 days earlier, despite being Year 8 and bottom of the age group.

In this much higher standard match, Joe made what looked like a very optimistic start.

Given that the 4.5km race was 2km longer than some of his usual U13 races it was hardly surprising that Joe slipped a little, but he hung on doggedly to earn eighth place and will be in the mix when the Welsh Schools Athletic Association (WSAA) selectors meet in two weeks time to select the final two team places and the two 1500m mixed relay places.

Conor Walby (Ysgol Calon Cymru) also represented Powys Schools in this age group and gained valuable experience at this level and will hope to be back here next year.

There was a quiet air of optimism about the Powys middle boys team and their chances of a rare Powys team victory at this level.

However, the late withdrawal of one of the better North athletes seemed to have hindered that initially.

As the race unfolded though, two of the North athletes and Jack Organ (Gwernyfed High Schol) were all looking strong in the top five or six and with Year 10 Joe Murphy (Christ College) gradually picking off places just outside the top 10 all was not lost.

A little further back, Toby Bennett (Crickhowell High School) who qualified as the 12th and final athlete on the team, was also having a great race.

Jack, whose preparation has been hindered by injury, slipped into sixth but grimly hung on for 600m to claim the final automatic qualifying spot for the Welsh team and what will be his international debut.

Joe meanwhile claimed a very good 12th spot to lay down a marker for next year while Toby in 26th had one of the best runs of the day.

The fantastic performances from the boys led to that rare achievement - a gold team performance by a Powys team.