Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

OPR at Maesteg parkrun – 8th anniversary edition

Since the inaugural in July 2017, we’ve had 268 runners registered under OPR that have completed 3,702 runs at Maesteg parkrun (that’s 14,808 times up that hill). Despite some weeks with no members at Maesteg over the past year, our club still makes up around 20% of all finishes at Maesteg in their 320 events to date. Just to note that these figures do include some juniors and some former members.

Most parkruns at Maesteg

  1. Niki Puleio 145
  2. Tom Mahoney 134
  3. Aled Hughes 119
  4. Nicky Bennett 114
  5. Dai Kembery 111
  6. Kris Denholm 104
  7. Emyr Bissmire 102
  8. Toby Kearns 94
  9. Carys Bissmire 80
  10. Arwen Rees 75

Dai and Emyr have both joined the Maesteg 100 club in the past year whilst Arwen is the only new addition from last years top 10 and is one in front of Denise Bradley who is our next most regular parkrunner at Maesteg. Other current members that have run at Maesteg on over 50 occasions are Alison Allen and Keith Coleman.

Highest percentage of total parkruns at Maesteg (for those with over 50 runs there) 

  1. Carys Bissmire (80/85) 94.1%
  2. Emyr Bissmire (102/110) 92.7%
  3. Nicky Bennett (114/139) 82.0%
  4. Tom Mahoney (134/179) 74.8%
  5. Arwen Rees (75/102) 73.5%

The major changes from last years list are Arwen and Tom who at one point had over 90% of their parkruns at Maesteg.

Maesteg first finishers

  1. Nicky Bennett 18
  2. Niki Puleio 18
  3. Toby Kearns 6
  4. Josh Parry 6
  5. Aled Jenkins 6
  6. Paul Teesdale 5
  7. Angelo Nico Doria 4
  8. Gareth Richards 2
  9. Steve Holloway / Kris Denholm / James Littlewood / Gareth Battle / Tom Mahoney / Aled Hughes / Jamie Verran / Wayne Hayhurst / Daniel Richards / Thomas Daly / Rhodri Thomas and Harvey Puleio have all finished first overall on one occasion

 We also had Jacob Tasker (a record 37 times) Neil Jones and Adrian Pearce as first finishers when they were members of the club meaning there’s been around 125 occasions that there’s been an OPR member first across the line at Maesteg.

Female first finishers

  1. Carys Bissmire 13
  2. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 5
  3. Bethan Moor 5
  4. Angharad Croot 3
  5. Willow Hughes 3
  6. Alison Allen 3
  7. Sarah Davies 2
  8. Sarah Wilkes 2
  9. Marina Konstantinova 2
  10. Sian Price / Katie Plimmer / Freya Allen / Hattie James / Arwen Rees 1

This list has increased by 5 since last year and the ladies have dominated at Maesteg parkrun with 19 first female finishers being OPR members in the past year.

 Fastest Maesteg PB’s (Male)

  1. Jacob Tasker 16:12
  2. Aled Jenkins 17:32 (before joining club)
  3. Angelo Nico Doria 17:38
  4. Nicky Bennett 17:53
  5. Paul Teesdale 17:57
  6. Josh Parry 18:27
  7. Niki Puleio 18:30
  8. Daniel Richards 18:44
  9. Gareth Richards 18:57
  10. Jamie Verran 19:01

Fastest Maesteg PB’s (Female) 

  1. Sarah Wilkes 21:23
  2. Bethan Moor 21:47
  3. Katie Plimmer 21:50
  4. Angharad Croot 22:19
  5. Mia Allen 22:39 (before joining club)
  6. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:04
  7. Freya Allen 23:08
  8. Carys Bissmire 23:36
  9. Willow Hughes 23:52
  10. Hattie James 23:54

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 (this was the morning before a Beer Mile and everyone was dressed up)

Volunteering at Maesteg parkrun

  1. Sian Jenkins 81
  2. Tom Mahoney 69
  3. Kris Denholm 46
  4. David Kembery 42
  5. Nicky Bennett 38

Former members Emma Marshall and Stephne Puddy are two of the most regular volunteers at Maesteg with 300 and 278 volunteer credits respectively. Over the years there’s been several OPR takeovers where 20+ volunteer roles have been filled by our members.

Happy 8th anniversary to Maesteg parkrun!