Athletics: Triathlete geared for X Challenge

Jan 19 2008 by Bob Cypher, South Wales Echo

COMMONWEALTH Games triathlete Andrea Whitcombe will be leaving her bike and goggles at home tomorrow as she aims to strengthen her running over Cardiff terrain.

The English athlete is the favourite to win the women’s title at the Corus-sponsored Cardiff X Challenge this weekend at Blackweir Fields in Bute Park.

Ranked second in the British rankings, Whitcombe, 36, aims to compete as part of the triathlon team at the Beijing Olympics in August. But this weekend she makes a return to cross country – the sport which kicked off her international career.

And she is set to be a very fierce contender. Not only is she a seven-times World Cross Country representative for Great Britain and a three-times National Cross Country Champion, she also competed in the 5,000m at the Sydney Olympics and took silver at the 1998 Commonwealth Games over the same distance.

The Welsh team is led by Commonwealth Games veteran Catherine Dugdale. The nine-times winner of the Welsh Cross Country title has turned her attention to the road in recent years, but her reappearance in the Cardiff line-up makes for an interesting confrontation.

The men’s race features strong contingents from the Midlands and the North of England. Tom Humphries heads the Midlands line-up. He showed useful form at the European Championships in Spain last month.

Cardiff has a strong deputation entered with Nat Lane, Richie Gardiner and Jorge Thomas all part of the Welsh squad, along with Huw Evans, of Tonbridge.

The under-20 events are not short on talent either. Cardiff’s Simon Lawson will be looking to follow up his victory over 5,000m at last weekend’s Welsh Indoor Championships.

bob.cypher@mediawales.co.uk