Dad’s 10-year-old running record falls to his son

A teen has set the new record in a gruelling annual dash to the top of a Welsh peak, beating the previous fastest ever time set by his father ten years ago.

Henry Evans, 18, left his maths teacher dad Huw well behind in this year’s Kymin Dash, a seven mile (11.3 km) run to the top of a hill above Monmouth.

“It was great that Henry broke it,” said proud father Huw. “I wouldn’t want anyone else.”

Huw said it “felt good” to hear the home crowd shouting as he shaved 25 seconds off the record.

“I wasn’t quite sure how close I was to the record… I thought about halfway, ‘yeah, it might be one today’,” the Cardiff AC runner told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

His record time was 39 minutes and 25 seconds, with Monmouth School maths teacher Huw, running in Parc Bryn Bach colours, crossing the finish line just over three minutes later.

Henry said he grew up wondering when he would be able to beat his running mad dad.

“It came a bit quicker than I thought,” he said, recalling how he went from being well behind Huw in year eight to beating him by 15 seconds in a five kilometre (3.1 mile) race the following year.

“I don’t think we ever had a close race, unfortunately,” he said.

So is Huw gunning for a rematch?

“No. I’m too old and too slow now,” he said.

“He’s too strong.

“He’d have to give me a big head start.”

At his son’s age ,Huw was a track runner competing in the 800 and 1,500 metre distances.

His son has already run faster then his best 1,500, but not his 800.

Huw said: “He’ll beat it though, I’m sure.”

“Maybe this summer,” Henry said.