There was still some action, both indoors and out, for Tonbridge Athletic Club members at the weekend, although many events are now being postponed or cancelled. The prospects of any competitions taking place within the sport, in the coming weeks, look slim.
Nineteen of the club’s members were part of the county schools’ team that travelled to Liverpool for the English Schools Cross Country Championships, on Saturday. There were team wins for Kent in both the Junior and Inter Boys competitions, where forty-five county teams competed, comprising more than three hundred finishers.
In the Junior Boys’ race, for school years 8 and 9, Josh Prendergast finished 15th and George Hopkins 23rd, to score for the winning Kent team, whilst Matthew Taylor did likewise in the Inter Boy’s event, where he placed 15th.
Lily Slack was the first Kent scorer, in the Junior Girls’ race, finishing 25th, where Olivia Breed, finishing 41st, scored for Sussex Schools. James Kingston (20th), Adam Van der Plas (68th) and Alex Beeston (97th) all scored for the Kent Senior Boys’ (years 12 and 13) team which finished third.
Although quite a few mass participation road races had been cancelled there were a few that went ahead. At the Dartford Half Marathon Harriet Woolley won the women’s race in 88.19, with Nichola Evans 3rd in 92.58. At the high-class Bath Half Marathon Ben Cole finished 10th in 66.54.
The Kent Indoor Championships were held at Lee Valley, across both days of the weekend, although it is very likely that this will be the last competition for a while.
Amongst the Tonbridge AC winners were Jack Lennard in the Senior Men’s 200m in 22.51 and Lewis Collins over 400m in 49.16. Alex Hookway won the Shot Putt with a personal best of 12.55 metres, adding 40 centimetres to his best.
At under 20 level, there were wins for Anton Bachorski over both 60 metres and 200 metres, with times of 6.95 and 22.42, whilst Charlie Crick won the 800 metres in 2.00.36. Asha Root ran a season’s best of 58.14 to win the under 20 women’s 400 metres, ahead of team-mate Jess O’Hara.
Lucinda White won the under 17 women’s Pole Vault with a clearance of 3.00 metres, whilst Freya Ridge tied for the High Jump gold medal, in the same age group, clearing 1.60 metres.