TROY Kettle, of North Wales Road Runners Club (NWRCC), has won the ‘best young athlete of the year’ award, following a superb performance for the North Wales County team in the Inter-Counties match at Meerbrook.
Student Troy made his debut in the 15km race and excelled in the famous orange and green strip and knocked five minutes off his previous time at the open race in Staffordshire in 2019, this time finishing 27th overall in 69 minutes and 52 seconds, and helping his team secure the runners-up spot.
This was one of several prestigious individual category ‘best performance’ annual awards nominated by North Wales Road Running team manager Paul Brooks based on excellent results for the county team in highly competitive inter-county races.
In a letter sent directly to the Troy Kettle, Paul Brooks wrote: “As you may know, each year I donate team manager’s awards to athletes that have represented North Wales at road running events and I was very impressed by your performance at the Meerbrook 15km.
“When an athlete makes his/her debut representing a county, it is against a background of expectation both from the selector and the athlete.
“In this race, you have more than justified your selection by running a time of 69.52, which I note is over five minutes faster than when you ran in the open race in 2019.
“I am therefore pleased to tell you that in my opinion, yours was the best performance by a young athlete in 2021, and I have today ordered a shield to that effect, which I will give to you when it is available in the new year.”
Additional team manager’s awards included: Rachel Shipley from Abergele winning best female performance.
Rachel was first to finish for the region in the Meerbrook 15km, with her time of 65:41 also the fastest yet by a female member of the team.
It was also more than five minutes quicker than her time in 2019.
All awards will be presented in January 2022.
Dates, awards, and running race news for North Wales in 2022
Meanwhile, confirmation has also been received from Paul Brooks that, subject to further potential COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, several county championship’s events have now been pencilled in for 2022.
Paul has confirmed that the regional trail running championships for 2022 will again be held within the Fairy Freckled Cow race.
Hosted by Denbigh Harriers, the event will take place on Sunday, July 3.
The Regional Road Relay championships for 2022 have been provisionally set for Saturday, April 23, at Llandudno promenade.
Though, this will only take place if they enough sponsorship can be secured to cover the high costs of staging the event.
Parkrun athletes on the run on Christmas Day
A pair of North Wales Road Runners took part in different 5km parkruns on Christmas Day and both celebrated good performances prior to enjoying their turkey dinners.
Jonathan Kettle ran at Newborough Forest on Anglesey and finished second out of 183 runners, completing the course in an excellent time of just 18 minutes and 41 seconds.
Troy, Jonathan’s teenage son, also ran well at this same event and finished 49th overall and he was second in his age category (SM18-19) in 24.03.
This run was the last scheduled parkrun at Newborough until further notice due to current COVID-19 restrictions.
Road Runner Jon Evans switched from recent parkruns at Chester to compete at Crewe on Christmas Day.
He was one of 244 finishers, and was pleased with 37th place in 24.15 and came fourth in his MV55-59 age category.
Meanwhile, the New Year’s Day parkrun at Conwy has been cancelled, together with notice that all future parkruns in Wales have been suspended from December 26 until further notice.
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