It’s just as well that Richie Gardiner didn’t give up on his dream to represent Wales at a major championship because after four near misses he helped himself to two gold medals on his Commonwealth debut.
Gardiner led the Welsh team to an historic 1-2-3 podium finish, and team gold, in the final event of the three day Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Marathon Championships in North Wales.
Having seen John Pares win the men’s title in the 24 hour race in Llandudno on Saturday, the 38-year-old Gardiner bided his time before powering through the field to pick off the early leaders and win the 55K Trail title in the spectacular Newborough Forest on Anglesey.
A Welsh champion at every distance from 10K on the track up to the marathon, he led team mates Andrew Davies and Nat Lane into the medals as they each picked off England’s Hugh Lobb in the final lap as he fell to pieces over the sandy beaches on the course.
The Aberdare police sergeant almost quit the sport that has been at the centre of his life for the past 30 years after failing by two seconds to qualify for the Welsh team that went to Delhi for last year’s Commonwealth Games.
But while he switched back to his former club Aberdare AC from Cardiff, he never carried out his threat to throw his running shoes away and bring to an end a career that began as an eight-year-old in his home town.
“Having got so close, so often to making a major championship I thought about quitting. It had always been my dream to represent Wales on a major stage and when I failed by two seconds to make the marathon standard last year it was the last straw,” admitted Gardiner.
“But I decided to look for a new challenge and ended up making the Welsh team for these Commonwealth Championships. I knew that at my age I had to make it count having been picked and I am absolutely elated at having brought home the gold medal.
“It was so late in the day I took the lead. It was a slow burner of a race for me as I settled in over the first two of the 10K laps and then started to work my way through the field.”
Kenya’s Geoffrey Tum set off at an incredible pace and although a Zambian runner followed him everyone else held back. The two Africans were seven minutes clear of Gardiner in fifth after two laps, but when both came to a grinding halt on lap four the Welshman, who had worked his way past South Africa’s Amon Mismango, suddenly found himself in second place.
Now the target was England’s highly accomplished marathon runner Hugh Lobb, who held a 4 min, 15 sec lead over his Welsh rival after three laps. That was when Tum limped out of the equation and Gardiner began to eat into Lobb’s lead.
He took more than two minutes out of him on lap four and went into the last lap two and a half minutes down. By the end he had turned that deficit into a 4 min, 39 sec winning advantage over fellow Welshman Davies as he struck gold in 3 hrs, 29.54 mins.
“You have to respect the distance, 33 miles, and the different terrains on which you are running, and I knew that if the Africans had gone off as quickly as they did they might suffer for it,” said Gardiner.
“All of a sudden they were struggling and initially I thought I could aim for bronze. Then I got into the silver place and I thought that that was going to be.
“I know just how good and experienced a marathon runner Hugh is, but I started to get some times from the side and then I could see him in the distance. That’s when I knew he was in trouble and I realised I could catch him and move into the gold medal position,
“Now that’s when the nightmares start. You take the lead with three miles to go and begin to wonder if you can hold onto it.
“I kept telling myself to relax, relax and I was able to keep it all together. It was a fantastic feeling coming up to the finish and winning and this is one of those races that justifies all the hard work that I’ve put in over my career.”
The icing on the cake was the second placed finish from Davies and Lane’s battling run for third. That gave Wales the team title and a second gold of the day on his major championship debut for Gardiner.
In the women’s race England’s Emma Gooderham won by more than 12 minutes from Scotland’s Angela Mudge, with Australia’s Kirstin Bull taking the bronze medal.

Commonwealth 24 Hour Road Race Championship – Overall Standings

1. Lizzy Hawker (England) 240 laps / 247.076 km * World Best Female
2. John Pares (Wales) 237 laps / 244.335 km
3. David Kennedy (Australia) 230 laps / 236.929 km
4. Pat Robbins (England) 225 laps / 231.164 km
5. Bryan McCorkindale (New Zealand) 216 laps / 222.374 km
6. Wayne Botha (New Zealand) 216 laps / 222.295 km
7. Chris Carver (England) 214 laps / 220.719 km
8. Emily Gelder (Wales) 214 laps / 220.480 km
9. Ant Courtney (Australia) 214 laps / 219.868 km
10. Meredith Quinlan (Australia) 211 laps / 217.631 km
11. Alex McKenzie (New Zealand) 211 laps / 216.955 km
12. Richad Quennell (England) 210 laps / 216.452 km
13. Sean McCormack (Wales) 206 laps / 211.941 km
14. Deb Martin-Corsani (Scotland) 202 laps / 208.057 km
15. Jeremy Mower (Wales) 202 laps / 207.968 km
16. Marie Doke (England) 201 laps / 206.409 km
17. Wayne Gaudet (Canada) 200 laps / 206.230 km
18. John Pearson (Australia) 199 laps / 204.328 km
19. Susannah Harvey-Jamieson (Australia) 199 laps / 204.373 km
20. Sharon Law (Scotland) 198 laps / 204.017 km

Men
1. John Pares (Wales) 237 laps / 244.335 km
2. David Kennedy (Australia) 230 laps / 236.929 km
3. Pat Robbins (England) 225 laps / 231.164 km

Men’s Team Race
1. England 668.335 km (Pat Robbins, Chris Carver, Richard Quennell)
2. Wales 664.244 km (John Pares, Sean McCormack, Jeremy Mower)
3. New Zealand 661.624 km (Bryan MacCorkindale, Alex McKenzie)
4. Australia 661.125 km (David Kennedy, Anth Courtney, John Pearson)
5. Canada 595.093 km (Wayne Gaudet, Bruce Barteaux, Dave Carver)
6. Scotland 490.296 km (Steve Mason, Bill Sichel, Richard Cunningham)

WOMEN
1. Lizzy Hawker (England) 240 laps / 247.076 km * World Women’s Best
2. Emily Gelder (Wales) 214 laps / 220.480 km
3. Meredith Quinlan (Australia) 211 laps / 217.631 km

Women’s Team Race
1. England 643.016 km (Lizzy Hawker, Marie Doke, Karen Hathaway)
2. Australia 619.190 km (Meredith Quinlan, Susannah Harvey-Jamieson,
Sharon Scholtz)
3. Scotland 605.791 km (Deb Martin-Consani, Sharon Law, Pauline Walker)
4. Canada 448.369 km (Sue Armstrong, Bernadette Benson, Charlotte
Vasarhely)

England’s women swept the board in the Commonwealth Mountain Championships in Llanberis with Lizzie Adams taking gold in the 8k race and leading the team to victory over Scotland.
Hot on the heels of finishing fifth in the World Mountain Championships in Albania earlier this month, the 25-year-old managed the 2,000 feet climb in the shadow of Snowdon to hold off Scotland’s Tracey Brindley and win by a clear 19 seconds.
The next four places were occupied by English athletes – Mary Wilkins, Olivia Walwyn-Bush, Victoria Wilkins and Sarah Tunstall – with Scotland’s Catriona Buchanan taking fifth.
That enabled the English team to add gold to the bronze they won in the World Championships, with the Scots taking silver. The first Welsh finisher in 11th place was Anna Bartlett in 47:59.
“This is the first major title I’ve won and it was nice to win it here. I lived in Llandrindod Wells when I was younger and I’ve been to the Snowdon area before,” said Adams.
“It was pretty tough, but very enjoyable. The weather made it wet and that made it tricky at the start.
“England have got a really strong team and it was great to add gold to the bronze we won in Albania. Now I will concentrate on the cross-country season and hopefully make it to the European Mountain Championships next year.”
In the Home Countries Under 18 Mountain Race there was success for Wales in the shape of Ffion Price, who won the women’s section having taken the Under 16 for the two previous years.

WOMEN’S COMMONWEALTH MOUNTAIN RACE

1. Lizzie Adams (England) 43 mins, 37 sec
2. Tracey Brindley (Scotland) 43:56
3. Mary Wilkins (England) 44:15
4 Olivia Walwyn-Bush (England) 44:41
5. Victoria Wilkins (England) 45:15
6. Sarah Tunstall (England) 45:17
7. Catriona Buchanan (Scotland) 45:36
8. Vivian Kiplagat (Kenya 45:44
9. Jackie Lee (Wales) 47:34
10. Claire Ward (Scotland) 47:52
11. Anna Barlett (Wales) 47:59
12. Susan Ridley (Scotland) 48:19
13. Bronwyn Humphrys (Australia) 48:46
14. Hubertien Wichers (Australia) 49:06
15. Emma Bayliss (Wales) 49:18
16. Doris Fishar (Malawi) 49:27
17. Clare Derrant (Australia) 50:14
18. Christina Rankin (Scotland) 50:29
19. Annabell Wilson (Australia) 51:12
20. Syl Corbett (Canada) 51:16

England’s Lizzie Hawker is on course to break the women’s 24 hour road race world record, needing to cover 43 kilometres in the final five hours at the Commonwealth Championships in Llandudno.

Overnight she overtook race leader John Pares (Pears) of Wales and after 19 hours 9 minutes had covered 200 kilometres. The women’s world record stands at 243km 657metres.

The 35-year-old Hawker recently won the Mont Blanc Mountain and Trail race, but is competing in her first 24 hour race. She leads Pares by two laps (185-183) and is 16 laps in front of her nearest rival in the women’s race, Emily Gelder of Wales.

In the men’s race, Pares was 11 laps clear of his nearest rival, England’s David Kennedy.

The race is due to finish at 12 noon today.
You can check out the video of the Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships opening ceremony by clicking here.

News Update from the 24 Hour Commonwealth Championship road race in Llandudno

The race started at 12 noon today (Friday) and at the first time and distance check the race was being led by Buckley’s John Pares.

John won the silver medal at the first Championships in Keswick two years ago and he took the lead just before the 4 hour checkpoint when he overtook defending champion Joe Blake of Australia.

At the 4 hour mark he had completed 47 laps and actually covered 48.22 kilometres (30 miles)

In third place was the first female athlete, England’s Lizzy Hawker, who had covered 47 kilometres (just over 29 miles). She is the hot favourite, but is being chased hard by the Welsh duo of Emily Gelder (5th overall with 46 km / 28.69 miles) and Jen Salter (12th overall with 45 km / 28 miles).

The race is due to finish at 12 noon on Saturday with the leaders chasing medals and the current world records of 290km / 180 miles for the men and 243km / 151 miles for the women.

Next update after 8 hours

ends

Just before heading to New Zealand with the Welsh squad, Wales’ World Cup Captain Sam Warburton returned to Whitchurch High School to meet the current 1st XV and to be presented with a school jersey to recognise his achievement of leading his country down-under.

WestgateTV was on-hand to follow the occasion and talk exclusively with Sam.

By John Kennedy

Westgate will be at the 2011 World Cup and supplying unrivalled coverage of the third biggest sporting event behind the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup.

Matt Lloyd will be our man Down Under for his second successive tournament – with various members of the Westgate team having covered all previous six tournaments.

And, while New Zealand and rugby union will be in the world sporting spotlight for the 44 days of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, back in 1987 the tournament was born more with a whimper than a bang.

The Big Eight had voted 6-2 in favour of a world championship for the sport – Ireland and Scotland registering the “no” votes – and this green light left little more than two years to lay the foundations of the tournament.

At that stage there were not even any plans for follow-up competitions and when matches were played in front of half full stadiums and limited TV audiences the signs were anything but encouraging.

World Cup 1 saw 600,000 people pass through the turnstiles with 300 million in 17 countries watching the action on television. For World Cup 6 those figures had rocketed to 2.25 million and four billion in 200 territories respectively.

World Cup 7 coming up will almost certainly see those marks eclipsed and Matt will be on hand to file exclusive day-to-day stories and comprehensive match reports.

But back to 1987 when the first match took place on 22 May between New Zealand and Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, a match the All Blacks won convincingly 70-6.

And there were plenty more one-sided affairs with half of the 24 matches across the four Pools seeing one team score 40 or more points with no record score lasting very long.
Despite those birth pains the concept survived – and once again Westgate will be there.

The past couple of weeks have seen everything!

Swansea have kicked off life in the Premiership and got their first league points at the weekend and Cardiff are in full flow in their Championship schedule.

On the back of victories over England and Argentina, Wales have announced their final 30-man party for the trip to the World Cup.

The season’s cutting folder is filling up well already and the PR team have been building exciting new relationships which we will discuss further very soon!

This week sees up split between the Millennium Stadium, the RaboDirect Pro12 launch in Dublin as well as fixtures across Wales this week.

For all the latest follow us on twitter @Westgate_Sport

The whistle has been blown on the first competitive action of the season and we are underway!

Twickenham, Wembley and the Liberty Stadium were our destinations last weekend.

Matt Lloyd made the trip to London with the Welsh rugby team as they played the first of three World Cup warm-up matches. England may have come out on top but the Welsh performance has trigged huge interest in the return game at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday which is keeping the PR team busy in the build up.

On the football front, Cardiff City got their season off to a flyer with a victory away to West Ham and the Welsh national team met up in camp at the start of the week as they prepare to face Australia in a first international friendly between the sides.

Phil spent the weekend watching Swansea claim victory in their final pre-season game against Real Betis and on Sunday watched their first opponents in the Premiership, Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley.

On the Olympics front, with the games now less than a year away we have been working with the team over at SportWales to promote the Welsh hopefuls.

Pre-season is well and truly upon us already!

Swansea have already kicked their Premier League preparations off with a double header against Neath and Port Talbot. Newport have welcomed Stoke (and their Newport born manager Tony Pullis) to South Wales and Cardiff City begin their pre-season against Celtic on Wednesday.

Phil Cadden (Westgate’s football writer) will be packing his bags for the first trip of the season later this week, as he heads out to Austria with the Swans on their pre-season tour.

The Welsh national rugby side are out in Poland on the second of two intense training camps and when they return all eyes will be focused on their world cup warm up games against England and Argentina.

The regional sides are out and about in the community, with kit launches and meet and greets taking place over the next few weeks.

Our rugby writers are at all the events and the PR team are busy preparing for the forthcoming internationals and planning for next season.

While the rugby and football seasons may have come to a close and the players are having a few well-earned days off before they are back ‘clocking-on’ for pre-season training, there is no such downtime for the team here in Cardiff.

As ever it was a frantic end to the season, the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cup Finals both took place in Cardiff, England were in town to face Sri Lanka at the Swalec Stadium, the Magners League season concluded with a terrific Grand Final in Limerick and of course two Welsh sides reached the Championship play-off’s and Swansea then made history by reaching the Premier League.

That just gives you a glimpse of where our team were and what we were working on in May.

Since then we have had the SAAB Open Golf, Wales announcing their prelimiary World Cup squad, the Heineken Cup 2011/12 Pool Draw, the Barbarians dropping into the Millennium Stadium and a new manager for Cardiff City.

That brings us relitively up-to-date.