2017 Cardiff Half Marathon: Dewi Griffiths targets personal best

Dewi Griffiths hopes Sunday's 2017 Cardiff Half Marathon will prove to be his strongest yet.

The event is the UK's second largest half-marathon, behind the Great North Run, and a record 25,000 runners take part this year.

Three-time Welsh half marathon champion Griffiths finished seventh at the Great North Run this year and is aiming for another personal best in Sunday's race.

"I've had a good summer," the 26-year-old told BBC Sport Wales.

"I started with a 10k PB, nailing the Commonwealth standard first go out.

"Then I ended the summer with PBs over 5k and 3k and I shocked myself with how easy those times felt.

"My aims (for this weekend) are pretty simple really. I think I can go even quicker than I did in the Great North Run."

After several fun runs and the wheelchair race, a strong elite field will line up for Sunday's 13.1 mile event.

It includes Eritrea's Hiskel Tewelde - who raced in the 5,000m at the 2016 Olympic Games - and Kenyan Violah Jepchumba - the fifth fastest woman in history over half-marathon distance.

Also joining Griffiths will be fellow Welshmen Josh Griffiths and Andrew Davies, who represented Great Britain at last summer's 2017 World Championship marathon in London.

"I hope it will be a battle (with them)," said Dewi Griffiths. "I know I'm in PB shape and if it's a battle it means they'll be running PBs too.

"It's nice for Wales to have competition. These are two guys who ran at the World Championships, so hopefully we can push each other to another level again."

*The 2017 Cardiff Half-Marathon begins at 10:00 BST on Sunday, 1 October and will be broadcast live on BBC One Wales and online.