It’s becoming a year that he’ll never forget, but for endurance runner Andy Davies there seems to be plenty still to come.
The Wales and Team GB marathon runner has left the relative ‘comfort’ of road running for the mountains for the time being, and it has paid dividends by winning the 18th WMRA/WMA Masters World Mountain Running Championships in Slovenia on Saturday.
“It was a great race, I was quite surprised at how steep it was and for how long,” The Forden man told us.
“I was happy to get the win as I had a battle with a Slovenian and a Danish athlete on the way up. But with 4km to go it wasn’t as steep so I was able to gain a 30-second advantage and this was enough to get me the win in the end. It was a fantastic race.”
The race provided a punishing climb for its competitors, but Andy, who finished 11th in the Commonwealth Games marathon in April, said his homeland provided the perfect training with a recent local win.
“It was 10.8km in total with a 1,183m climb. I did Cader Idris fell race two weeks ago and that put me in good stead to running uphill continuously.
“It’s nice to take a bit of time out from the marathons and road running and concentrate on the mountains for a while.”
Next up for the Newtown college lecturer is the Coed y Brenin Trail Marathon on June 16.