July 08, 2024 - 1063 views
The most challenging event in the police sporting calendar has recently celebrated its 50thanniversary.
The annual Snowdonia Seven mountain race - which encourages fitness, teamwork and endurance is open to serving and retired officers, staff and volunteers of the UK police forces.
Organised by the Snowdonia Seven Committee, under the auspices of the North Wales Police Sports Association, the challenge sees teams travel over seven of the highest mountain peaks located in the Eryri National Park traversing a total of 8,000ft of ascent in under 10 hours. The first ascent (and therefore the warm up!) takes the teams from Llanberis to the summit of Yr Wyddfa.
Early last Saturday (June 29) 50 teams of four with competitors representing 23 Police Forces from across Wales and England set off from Llanberis for the start of the gruelling 22-mile race. The weather was grim with heavy rain most of the day which really tested the endurance of the competitors and the marshals.
The 2024 winners were Cumbria A (Team 45) from Cumbria Constabulary who completed the course in a superb five hours and 30 minutes.
Remarkably the first event in 1974 was also won by ‘Team 45’ and this year’s winners were cheered over the line by members of the original winning team.
The event goes way back to 1973 when an officer in the North Wales Police Training Department – PC Cynan Davies, decided it would be a good idea if the Police Cadets were able to undertake some ‘adventure training.’ Being blessed with the National Park on the doorstep he chose the mountain environment as the location to develop them.
Having got the Cadets learning about the mountains, equipment, map reading and hiking long distances, PC Davies decided that it would be a good idea to challenge other Police Forces’ s Cadets to a mountain test. Invitations were sent out thus the race was born in the summer of 1974 and was named the Snowdonia Seven Mountain Trail.
Having been deemed a great success the event was repeated the following year and continued until 1983 when it became clear that many police forces were abolishing the recruitment of Cadets, making the race no longer viable as a cadet-only event. The decision was made to open the race to include Police Officers who wanted to take on the challenge. This format of Cadets alongside Seniors continued for some years, until sadly, the last Cadet team raced in 1994.
In 2005 the route was changed and extended in length from 15 miles to 22 miles, to start and finish at Llanberis – the traditional home of Welsh fell running, and this remains the case to this day.
Mark Owen, Citizens in Policing Manager for North Wales Police and Race Director said: “50 years and thousands of competitors later, the race is still going strong.
“Things have changed a lot since 1974 but the event is still a gruelling test of fitness, stamina, navigational skills and teamwork.
“Over the years we’ve had some memorable moments, with each and every individual having a story to tell; whether as competitors or marshals, or were just making the tea, the event has had a positive impact on their lives in some way.
“New categories have been introduced to make the event more inclusive, with female and mixed categories and the more recently Super Veterans category – where every team member must be 50 years of age or older.
“The event’s popularity seems to remain as high as ever. Funded entirely from entry fees and sponsorship the event is organised by a band of volunteers made up of serving and retired North Wales Police officers and staff.
“We are eternally grateful to each and every one of our volunteers who help organise and marshal the day and a huge thanks this year also goes to our sponsors, Cotswold Outdoor for their continued support.
“This year’s event was officially opened by the original founder Cynan Davies, and it was great to see him in attendance to mark the 50th anniversary. Cynan also attended the prize giving and presented the overall winners with the Open category cup, the same cup that has been used throughout. He was given a standing ovation by all those present.”
Founder of the event, retired PC Cynan Davies said: “When I first organised this event I never dreamt that it would still be ongoing 50 years later.
“Amongst other things it was my role in the North Wales Police Cadets to take them up to the mountains of Snowdonia on a weekly basis. At that time the army were also training in Snowdonia, and I found out they also had cadets. Eventually I learned that they had cadet events in the army which were going to take place in Snowdonia. So I got friendly with their leaders and eventually I was able to get some of my cadets into their army cadet race, and not only that, but one of them went on to win. You can imagine that I was over the moon.
“From then on after all that training, I thought about ways of getting all the Cadets together and thankfully received the support of the then Chief Constable, Philip Myers.
“I became friends with the then Head Warden of the National Park – John Ellis Roberts, who sadly is no longer with us. Thankfully he gave me valuable help with the organisation of routes and navigation and that’s how the Snowdonia Seven race was born. The rest of course, is history.”
Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, who attended the race presentation said: “It was an absolute honour to give out the winners and runners up prizes, and also to meet and speak to the runners who had come to join us from all across Wales and England. It was especially wonderful to meet with and chat with Cynan Davies – who was the founder of this event 50 years ago. We owe him a great deal and to see it going strong year after year is amazing.
“A huge congratulations to all who took part and a big thank you to all of our volunteers who assisted on the day.”
