Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

OPR at Maesteg parkrun – 6 years anniversary edition

Since the inaugural in July 2017, we’ve had 237 runners registered under OPR that have completed 2,810 runs at Maesteg parkrun. Our club make up nearly 10% of all finishes at Maesteg in their 221 events to date. Just to note that these figures do include some juniors and some former members. At that inaugural, we had 35 runners who were members at the time – 30 of which are still members.

Most parkruns at Maesteg

  1. Aled Hughes 107
  2. Niki Puleio 106
  3. Nicky Bennett 90
  4. Tom Mahoney 89
  5. Kris Denholm 86
  6. Toby Kearns 75
  7. Dai Kembery 72
  8. Emyr Bissmire 62
  9. Peter Walsh 57
  10. Denise Bradley 57

 Keith Coleman and Adam Kearns have run at Maesteg on 50 occasions whilst Carys Cronin, Sally Pensom and Alison Allen all have over 40 runs at Maesteg.

Highest percentage of total parkruns at Maesteg (for those with over 25 runs there) 

  1. Tom Mahoney (89/94) 94.7%
  2. Emyr Bissmire (62/67) 92.5%
  3. Carys Cronin (45/49) 91.8%
  4. Ben Batchelor (33/36) 91,7%
  5. Arwen Rees (35/39) 89.7%
  6. Nicky Bennett (90/101) 89.1%
  7. Jacob Tasker (35/41) 85.4%
  8. Scott Gray (29/35) 82.9%
  9. Adam Kearns (55/69) 79.7%

 There’s quite a big drop off after that so it’s mainly these 9 that are the ‘Maesteg or nothing’ runners. 

Maesteg first finishers

  1. Jacob Tasker 35
  2. Niki Puleio 10
  3. Nicky Bennett 8
  4. Josh Parry 6
  5. Toby Kearns 4
  6. Gareth Richards 2
  7. Rhys Williams 2
  8. Kyle Blackmore / Steve Holloway / Kris Denholm / James Littlewood / Gareth Battle / Tom Mahoney / Aled Hughes / Adam Kearns / Jamie Verran / Wayne Hayhurst

 We also had Neil Jones and Adrian Pearce as first finishers when they were members of the club meaning there’s been around 80 times that there’s been an OPR member first across the line at Maesteg.

Female first finishers

  1. Carys Cronin 5
  2. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 4
  3. Sarah Davies 2
  4. Sarah Wilkes 2
  5. Sian Price / Sarah Littlewood / Juliet Amner / Bethan Moor 1

 Fastest Maesteg PB’s (Male)

  1. Jacob Tasker 16:12
  2. Nicky Bennett 17:53
  3. Josh Parry 18:27
  4. Niki Puleio 18:30
  5. Gareth Richards 18:57
  6. Rhys Williams 18:59
  7. Toby Kearns 19:07
  8. Gareth Battle 19:13
  9. Aled Hughes 19:16
  10. John Burridge 19:20

 We have another 5 current members who have run sub 20 at Maesteg – Jamie Verran, James Littlewood, Adam Kearns, Dylan Panting and Wayne Hayhurst. 

Fastest Maesteg PB’s (Female) 

  1. Sarah Wilkes 21:23
  2. Bethan Moor 23:01
  3. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:04
  4. Freya Allen 23:08
  5. Sarah Littlewood 23:29
  6. Carys Cronin 23:36
  7. Willow Hughes 23:52
  8. Alison Allen 24:18
  9. Kate Lee 24:37
  10. Dawn Hopkins 24:37

 Top age grade percentages 

  1. Jacob Tasker 79.63%
  2. Gareth Richards 77.22%
  3. Niki Puleio 75.02%
  4. Kris Denholm 75.02%
  5. Aled Hughes 74.13%
  6. Gareth Battle 74.10%
  7. Denise Bradley 73.78%
  8. Jason Griffiths 73.20%
  9. Keith Coleman 72.15%
  10. Nicky Bennett 72.13%

 Judith Jeeves, Claire Dunbar-Bowen and Freya Allen would be the next ladies. 

Age Category Records at Maesteg (noting any in the top 5) 

SM20-24 – 1st – Jacob Tasker 16:36

SM25-29 – 1st – Jacob Tasker 16:12 / 3rd – Nicky Bennett 17:53

VM50-54 – 2nd – Gareth Richards 19:13

VM55-59 – 4th – Kris Denholm 20:29 

JW15-17 – 5th – Freya Allen 23:08 (before joining club)

SW18-19 – 4th – Willow Hughes 23:52

SW20-24 – 3rd – Sarah Wilkes 22:06

SW25-29 – 5th – Sarah Wilkes 21:23

VW55-59 – 4th – Denise Bradley 24:50

VW60-64 – 4th – Denise Bradley 25:56 

Biggest OPR attendances at Maesteg 

  1. 11th September 2021 – 45 (Dai Kembery’s 250th parkrun)
  2. 24th December 2022 – 43 (multiple club milestones / Christmas theme)
  3. 3rd August 2019 – 41 (I think this was the morning before a Beer Mile and everyone was dressed up – not sure what the occasion was though)

Volunteering at Maesteg parkrun

  1. Stephne Puddy 183
  2. Sian Jenkins 66
  3. Kris Denholm 41
  4. Nicky Bennett 37
  5. Tom Mahoney 32

Emma Marshall who was a member of our club until this year has the most volunteer credits at Maesteg with 200. Over the years there’s been several OPR takeovers where 20+ volunteer roles have been filled by our members so it’s easily the parkrun that has had the most different number of OPR members that have volunteered there at least once.

If you haven’t been to Maesteg parkrun before, then come along sometime soon. It’s one of the most friendliest, welcoming parkruns around and you’ll be sure to see a Phoenix or two along the way.