ANDY Davies paid tribute to his supporters ahead of flying out to Australia for the 2018 Commonwealth Games this week.

The Newtown based marathon runner took part in three fun races around the Maldwyn Leisure Centre athletics track on Thursday as part of the national ‘We Are Red’ campaign.

“It was a great evening and really enjoyed it,” said Davies. “It was good to see so many children enjoying their running.

“Hopefully one day they will be going to compete at the Commonwealth Games. It was a great send off and I can’t wait to represent the people of Montgomeryshire and Wales.”

The event also marked the launch of Davies’ new ‘And-Roid’ celebration and hoped supporters would carry the craze into the Gold Coast games.

Matthew Savage of Maldwyn Leisure Centre said: “We wanted to give Andy a good send off to the Commonwealth Games in Australia and wanted to promote Team Wales’ ‘We are red’ campaign by giving children and athletics club members a chance to race him.

“It was great to see so many children have the chance to race an international athlete and hopefully it will have inspired children to either take up running or get stuck into a different sport.”