POPULAR trail race Ras yr Hafod makes a return on Wednesday, 4 May after a break of two years.

An evening 10k race, it is run over a hilly two lap course within the historic Hafod Estate in Pont-rhyd-y-groes.

Ras yr Hafod, devised and organised by local athlete Dic Evans, was first held in the mansion fields at Hafod in 2010.

It marked an athletics meeting held 150 years previously at the Hafod mansion which had been organised by the then 17-year-old John Chambers, son of William Chambers; the Chambers family having bought and moved to Hafod in 1856.

Reported on by Bob Harrigan for The Welshman, activities included a foot race on the lawn, throwing the cricket ball, prize-money races run by professional runners and a cricket match between Hafod and Ystrad Meurig.

John Chambers who would go on to found the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), is regarded by historians of sport as being instrumental in the “codification of amateur athletics’”.

The meeting at Hafod in 1860 is significant for being the earliest known recorded amateur athletics meeting in Wales, and with the involvement of Chambers, for the links it held to the formal structuring of athletics in Britain as a whole.

This year, the children’s race (entry £3) starts at 6pm, and the adults race (£5) starts at 7.15pm. There is also a 5k walk that starts at 7.15pm.

To register or for further information contact http://redkite-barcudcoch.org.uk/ or Dic Evans on 07773 435073, [email protected].