Promising young runner Ciaran Lewis emerged victorious in recent Manchester Half Marathon.
The Cardiff Metropolitan University student finished with an impressive time of 1:06:08 in what was his debut event at half marathon distance. This follows his impressive performances throughout the previous two years, including wins for Cardiff Athletics in the Senior Men’s Welsh Road Relay back in 2019.
I was fortunate enough to catch up with Ciaran, who oozed confidence in the latter stages of the Manchester Half Marathon, overcoming his early nerves and despite only managing three hours of sleep the night before.
“I was really nervous from the night before, only getting 3 hours sleep. I was pretty apprehensive to push the pace early on as id never raced that distance before, so I wanted to make sure I had enough left in the tank for the end of the race”.
“The first eight miles were pretty comfortable, and when I pushed on I began to realise I was going to win and then I just enjoyed myself down the home straight!”.
After the win, Ciaran spoke of planning to rest up and enjoy his running for the rest of the year. “I’m hoping that I’ve now found my perfect distance in the half marathon, although I’m going to save myself for another one in 2022. For the rest of this year I’m just going to take advantage of there actually being races to take part in, which we haven’t had since 2019”.
He also spoke of Olympic and Commonwealth aspirations when asked on what the next five years might have in store. “I’d like to represent GB and the World Half Marathon Championships and lower my 5k and 10k times as much as possible. Then I guess it’ll be time to move up to the marathon, which I think will be my best event after seeing my stats from testing. I’d love to go to the 2028 Olympics and the 2026 Commonwealth games.”
High aspirations from the young runner and, if this recent victory is any indication, he’s certainly on the right ‘track’.
Owen Gardner's Sports Blog 