Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

OPR at Maesteg parkrun – celebrating 200 events

Since the inaugural in July 2017, we’ve had 226 runners registered under OPR that have completed 2,419 runs at Maesteg parkrun. 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 100
  2. Niki Puleio 96
  3. Nicky Bennett 76
  4. Kris Denholm 75
  5. Tom Mahoney 69
  6. Toby Kearns 66
  7. Dai Kembery 59
  8. Peter Walsh 57
  9. Denise Bradley 53
  10. Adam Kearns 51

 Keith Coleman could run his 50th Maesteg parkrun at the 200th event to become the 11th member of the club to run at Maesteg on 50 occasions. 

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

  1. Ben Batchelor (26/27) 96.3%
  2. Tom Mahoney (69/73) 94.5%
  3. Emyr Bissmire (41/46) 89.1%
  4. Jacob Tasker (32/36) 88.8%
  5. Carys Cronin (31/35) 88.5%
  6. Nicky Bennett (76/86) 88.4%
  7. Adam Kearns (51/58) 87.9%

 There’s quite a big drop off after that so it’s mainly these 7 that are the ‘Maesteg or nothing’ runners. 

Maesteg first finishers

  1. Jacob Tasker 32
  2. Niki Puleio 9
  3. Josh Parry 6
  4. Nicky Bennett 5
  5. Gareth Richards 2
  6. Toby Kearns 2
  7. Rhys Williams 2
  8. Kyle Blackmore / Steve Holloway / Kris Denholm / James Littlewood / Gareth Battle / Tom Mahoney / Aled Hughes / Adam Kearns / Jamie Verran

 We also had Neil Jones and Adrian Pearce as first finishers when they were members of the club meaning there’s been around 70 times that there’s been an OPR member first across the line at Maesteg. Most of those have been since parkrun returned after the covid pause with 56 out of the last 69 parkruns having an OPR member first across the line.

Female first finishers

  1. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 4
  2. Carys Cronin 3
  3. Sarah Davies 2
  4. Sarah Wilkes 2
  5. Sian Price / Sarah Littlewood / Juliet Amner 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 – Neil Price, Jamie Verran, James Littlewood, Adam Kearns and Wayne Hayhurst. 

Fastest Maesteg PB’s (Female) 

  1. Sarah Wilkes 21:23
  2. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:04
  3. Sarah Littlewood 23:29
  4. Carys Cronin 23:36
  5. Sian Price 24:18
  6. Kate Lee 24:37
  7. Dawn Hopkins 24:37
  8. Sarah Davies 24:43
  9. Denise Bradley 24:50
  10. Jo Jenkins 24:52

 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 Sarah Davies 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 

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. Emma Marshall 179
  2. Stephne Puddy 163
  3. Sian Jenkins 51
  4. Nicky Bennett 35
  5. Kris Denholm 31
  6. Jay Howells 26

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 for the 200th celebrations or 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.