Palmer can't quite keep up with the Jones'
Andres and Filipe Jones at Pen y Fan
The classic dash, up one of South Wales’ classic mountains, that is the Pan y Fan race, escaped the worst of this weekend’s weather as it went off in clear and dry conditions yesterday
Jones brothers Andres and Filipe warmed up for their Welsh vests at Snowdon next week with a one-two ahead of Mynydd Du’s Mark Palmer. Helen Fines bounced back from her 5th place at last week’s British champs race in North Wales to turn-in an easy win in the women’s race.
To be fair the 3.5mile sprint to the Pan y Fan table-top was probably a little short for Palmer, whose recent exploits have seen him win the Brecon 40 and run a fantastic 14.59 Bob Graham Round, however the Jones boys have been in pretty hot form of late too.
After leading handsomely at summit Andres was reeled in by Filipe and the even faster descending Palmer, on the super-fast descent once described by Keith Anderson (course record holder at an amazing 30 minutes dead!) as giving the runner “the feeling of flying”. However, Andres held of his Aberystwyth team-mate by one second in 35 mins 30 secs, with Palmer in third 25 seconds back.
Note: The fastest descent of the day was an amazing 9 mins 12 secs by Stuart Bellamy of Mercia!
Helen Fines
Running for Vegan Runners Helen Fines was also swift on the descent, clocking an impressive 10.07, leaving her 7 minutes up on second placed Helen Bennett from MDC.
Full results over at the Pen Y Fan site here with some nice images on the gallery page here and cracking report here.
