A HANDFUL of national titles came the way of Gwent athletes at the Welsh Championships in Cardiff.

Steeplechaser Ieuan Thomas won the men’s 1500m by more than a second from Cardiff AAC clubmate John Cove, with Newport Harriers’ Abed Teweldebrhan sixth.

Victory for Pontypool’s Thomas is a significant boost ahead of the naming of the British team to compete at the European Championships in Berlin next month.

Thomas was second at the British Championships and has the qualifying standard so should be in the squad when it is announced early next week.

Not to be outdone, Teweldebrhan did get his hands on a medal, finishing second in the men’s 3000m behind clubmate Remi Adebiyi.

There was more success for the Newport club in the men’s shot put where Daniel Cork came second, just five centimetres behind champion Patrick Swan of Cornwall AC.

At just 15 years old, Blackwood’s Caitlyn Mapps won senior silver in the women’s 200m, and she was so close to gold.

Malta’s Charlotte Wingfield won the event but as she was ineligible for the title it came down to Mapps and Wrexham AAC’s Amy Odunaiya for the big prize.

Mapps ran a new lifetime best but was pipped to first place by two hundredths of a second.

Newport’s Zoe Nash was fifth and Cwmbran Harriers’ India Jenkins was seventh.

Parc Bryn Bach Running Club’s Lauren Cooper was the only entrant in the women’s 2000m steeplechase so was guaranteed gold before the race started.

Former Cwmbran Harriers middle distance runner Isobel Parry-Jones, now representing Swansea Harriers, just missed out on bronze in the women’s 800m.

The championships also featured under-15 medal events and Gwent athletes didn’t go away empty-handed.

Amelia Fettis, of Newport Harriers, won the girls’ shot put with a personal best of 10.45m.

Clubmate Antonia Dawes took silver in the girls’ 300m, and Rhymney Valley AC’s Sarie Watkins won bronze in the girls’ javelin.