By Owen Morgan

 

Wales’ Beth Davies has literally walked into the Great Britain team for the World Athletics Championships in London later this summer.

The Cardiff AAC race walker finished second in the British Grand Prix of Race Walking held at Roundhay Park, Leeds, at the weekend.

Davies finished second to Gemma Bridge in the women’s 20km British Championship race, clocking a Welsh record of 93 mins 38 secs – the third fastest time ever by a British athlete.

Her performance earned Beth automatic selection for the World Athletics Championship in August.

It was a busy weekend for Welsh athletes with Dewi Griffiths retaining his Swansea Half Marathon title on Sunday in a time of 64 mins 49secs.

Meanwhile, his namesake Josh Griffiths, who like Beth Davies has qualified for the World Championships, was the first non-African runner to finish in the Hamburg Half Marathon, coming home in 13th place in time of 65 mins 53 secs.

In Lille, France, there were three Welsh Athletes in the Great Britain squad which finished a creditable fourth in the European Team Championships, eventually won by Germany.

Cardiff hurdler David Omoregie clinched some valuable points for the British cause by finishing third in a high-quality 110m hurdles field.

The race was won by Spain’s Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega in 13.21, with Omoregie clocking in at 13.36, a split second behind Aurel Manga.

Omoregie posted a season’s best time of 13.34 in the heats, which bodes well for next weekend’s World Athletics Championship trials in Birmingham.

In the pole vault, Commonealth Games silver medallist Sally Peake equalled her season’s best performance of 4.35M, to finish sixth behind Olympic Champion Ekaterini Stefanidi.

And in the 1500 metres, 2015 US Collegiate Champion Rhianwen Price finished ninth in another high quality field, which was led home by emerging German talent Konstanze Klosterhalfen.