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The main event in Cardiff the week end was the Cardiff Half Marathon race. The race included the Commonwealth Championships, and the Welsh Half Marathon Championships. The photo shows the first 3 female runners in the Welsh Championships. Gold Medal went to Cardiff's Clara Evans, in middle of photo in 74.15, 2nd Rosie Edwards Rotherham 75.25, and Jenny Nesbitt 3rd 76.14.

In the men's race Cardiff's Matt Clowes, running for England, finished 10th in 63.25 a personal best time. Matt was 33secs behind Dewi Griffiths in 9th place. Cardiff''s Jake Smith  had a great race, he finished in 14th place in 64.01. Jake Heyward was 92nd in 75.23. Jake Heyward had also ran in England's Road Relay Championships, the day before in Birmingham. He was 2nd on 1st leg in 17.12 the (5th fastest leg time). A busy weekend, though he got his Sundays long run completed.   

The Relays were held in Pembrey Park for second year. Weather was awful, arrived at 10.30am was soaked before first race started at 11.30am. As various age group races finished people left, with only senior teams and runners left by end of event.

Cardiff teams in the U17 age group, dominated event. The photograph is Cardiff's winning U17M team, with David Lock, Ben Reynolds, and Llody Sheppard. Ben ran the fastest leg time on the last leg. Our Cardiff U17W team also won, with Nia Clatworthy, Bethany Gold, and Mia Goddard. Nia also had fastest leg time. One can see from the U17M photo, how well they are wrapped up against the rain, and cold wind.

The U17W decided to show off their Cardiff vests, and goose bumps. Tried to upload their photo without succees, at moment!

Autumn road races are well under way, with the cross country season starting on Tuesday. The first of  the Cardiff & Vale Schools Cross Country League meetingS (Boys) races at Pendcoedre School in Barry. On Wednesday the (Girls) races will be held at the same venue. Many Cardiff runners take part in these competitions, that are viewed as development races.

USA Colleges cross country season started on 1st September. With the Memphis Twilight XC Classic, in Tennessee.

Cardiff's Ffion Price was 1st with Bethan Evans in 28th place. 

Have received an urgent email from Club Manager this afternoon regarding the track opening date. Due to contractor delays the work suppose to be commencing last Tuesday, will not start until the middle of September.

Emails have been sent out to all paid up members of the Academy for the Autumn term, informing them of track completion delay. Monies paid in advance will be carried forward to following term. A new date for commencing the Academy sessions is Monday 5th November 2018.

The track opening delay affects all athletes and coaches that hold sessions at Leckwith during the winter months. Since the track closed week begining 15th July, we are nearly 2 months later, with no track completion date. Coaching sessions have been held at stadium for throws using outside throwing area, and a football pitch near stadium entrance.

Last Sunday 2nd September saw thousands of runners taking part in the Cardiff 10km and Fun Run races, held in dry warm weather. Cardiff AAC had 33 runners, with 18 males, and 15 females, covering U18 to Masters age groups.

Our senior men took pride of place in the 10km race, with Matt Clowes 2nd, (pictured) Jake Smith 3rd, Dan Nash 9th and James Hunt 12th. Dewi Griffiths (winner) led from gun, flying through 5km in 14.14 (28.28 10km pace), with a chasing pack of 4 runners including Matt Clowes and Jake Smith in 14.33, 19secs behind Dewi.  

Over the last 5km Matt reduced a tiring Dewi lead, to 8secs at finish, by running a well judged race. Matt will be representing England team, in the Cardiff Half Marathon that includes a Commonwealth competition. His selected follows a series of top class road performances, and included in our BAL team (5km 2nd 14.14.96) held in Cardiff last June. Matt, is self coached covers a lot of mileage on his own, as many endurance runners do, and have done for years.

Cardiff's senior ladies also had excellent results, with Clara Evans (3rd female), Lucy Marland 7th, and Cary Hughes 8th. These 3 runners have achieved consistant good results on the road, and in cross country racing.     

Following the conclusion of the 2018 Track & Field season, Cardiff AAC is Wales leading Athletic Club. Results of our senior flag ship teams have, with Cardiff's senior mens BAL team retaining their place in the Premier League. Cardiff's senior womens team not to be out done by our mens team, gained promotion (for first time) to the UKWL, Premier League, for the 2019 season.

There are a number of factors that have lead to these achievements. Team management, working hard to field competitive teams, and having athletes in team, able to compete at Premier League level. No club can produce athletes to compete in all T&F events. While some will come from club development, other athletes train off site in specilised groups. Recruitment of athletes is always on going, a limited number of higher claim athletes are recruited to compete in Premier League teams, same for most clubs. Team management will start work this winter on Premier League teams, being ready for the 2019 season campaign.

Cardiff AAC is closed, due to holidays of club Administration, athletes, coaches, officials and track refurbushment. Our club office  opens on Thursday 30th August. Cardiff's Academy resumes on Monday 10th September, training will be held in House of Sport Dome, until track refurbishment is completed.

The final club team competition took place at Swansea yesterday. A cloudy windy morning greeted our Welsh Junior League athletes. In the afternoon the sun appeared, and conditions improved, with athletes achieving pb performances.

Ben Reynolds won U17M race 3.57.76 pb. Unfortunately Welsh Athletices results only show the WJL plate final. Yet show on WA's report link to cup results, only Plate event results come up. 

Mark Vincent stepped drown as one of our WJL Team Managers after 5 years. Mark reported it has been a privilege to to watch the clubs U11-U15 athletes progress and develop during his 5 years. During his time, teams have won 2 WJL Finals,  and competed against the best in (YDL) UK Finals. He thanked all athletes, coaches, officials and parents, for their support, and has worked with some great club team managers. To all athletes yesterday at Swansea, a BIG well done.   

Club Chairman Bernie Plain, met Steve Borley last week, regarding situation in relaiding the new track, as rumours have been circulating. Bernie confirmed, the contractors will start this week, (they have). First they will take up the old track all weather surface, remove surface from D's, and run ups to the sand pits etc. Then repairs (if required) will be made the concrete surface. Next stage will be to insert the new track etc surfaces. Once that has been completed the track etc., will have to be lined for competitions to take place.

The plan is to have the refurbushment work finished ready for the Academy season starting on 10th September. Should that not happen, the DOME can be used by Academy, on training nights, and the grass field near entrance to stadium will be made available for training. The outside throwing area has not been affected, and has been used for training and competitions, as in previous post. The throwing area will have refurbishment work in replacing the old grass surface.

The new track will be BLUE like the one seen on TV in Berlin Euro Championships. The D's, and runways will be RED, with WHITE lines, thus matching club colours. As always, completion date of refurbushmen will be dictated by the weather, will keep updates on refurbushment progress.  

Last Tuesday 7th August, the 4th Cardiff AAC Invitational for young throwers was held. The event is by invitational only, due to the limited time available for an evening meeting. Athletes taking part are mostly from South Wales & West areas of Wales.

Once again Cardiff's elite senior men took part. Brett Morse and Aled Davies F42. Brett must like the event, as his Discus throw was his second longest throw DT2K (60.47m) of this season. Aled Davies also had a good Discus throw of DK 1.5K (52.46m). Matteo Holmes U23M had pb's in Discus DT2K (31.68m), and Hammer throw 7.26K (34.11m).

Having 2 elite athletes taking part, must help young competitors seeing them close up in action, and no doubt the seniors giving advice to the young throwers.

Youngsters taking part range from U15 to U20 age groups. Cardiff's Ben Hillman U17M Discus throw 1.5K (30.29m), was close to his personal best. In Hammer throw Cassey Grimwade U17W HT3K (47.78m), was close to her personal best throw.

The full results can be seen on Power of 10 results page, on date 7th August of event.  

Yesterday at Leigh, Manchester, history happened for Cardiff's senior womens team. They gained promotion for first time to UKWL Premier League in 2019 season. A weaken team (holidays/injuries) meant athletes doubling up or even trebling up in order to finish in first 2 places to garantee promotion.

Sharon Thor Heveran team manager, said other teams were similary affected, leading to 2 events had no (B) competitors. Despite being shown in Pof10 results, have been advised that our 4x400 team were DQ. Despite those issues, the team finished a comfortable 2nd place in yesterdays match, led Division in overall standing with (23pts), and scored the most team points (637pts)in the 3 matches. 

Sharon made sure every event had a Cardiff competitor, hence athletes doubling up, Kate Seary 800m (A) 6th, 3km (B) 1st, Ffion Price 1500 (A) 2nd, 3km (A) 3rd. Ffion delaid flying back to US College, in oder to compete in final match. Emily Brown 400H (B), 2km s/c (A). Sara Buggy LJ (A) 2nd, TJ (A) 1st. Rebecca Chapman LJ (B) 1st, JT (A) 4th. Gwennan Lewis SP (A) 5th, HT (B) 6th, DT (B) 7th.