Over the past week, Tonbridge Athletic Club members have been developing their early season track and field form, whilst faced with considerable variation in the weather conditions. At some locations it was extremely challenging, such as at Bromley on Monday evening, whilst quite benign at Wimbledon on Wednesday. Then at Basingstoke, on Saturday, it was very much luck of the draw if a race was in bright sunshine or under a heavy downpour.
The Basingstoke meeting consisted of a total of twenty-one 800 metres races, with each seeded subsequently faster. Ben Murphy and Sean Molloy (photo above) were in the final race, with Murphy capturing his first win on the track over Molloy and his third overall from three races this season. Luca Bigg, from Brighton had led for much of the second lap, but Murphy ducked by to win in 1.50.32, with Molloy, having his first race of the season, third in 1.51.10. They will both be targeting the British Championships qualifying time of 1.49.50 in the coming weeks. In the previous race, Jordan Chambers recorded a big personal best to win in 1.55.99, whilst in race nine, Jess Murphy finished 2nd in a pb of 2.24.27. Over the same distance, in atrocious conditions at Leeds, on Thursday, Charlie Crick finished 4th in 1.54.04, not far away from his pb.
The 3000 metres was perhaps the most popular track distance of the week, with eight Tonbridge members recording some significant performances. At Wimbledon, on Wednesday, Alex Howard finished 3rd in the A-race with a pb of 8.14.39, with Kieran Reilly at 8.15.74 and Stuart Brown with a pb of 8.19.66 just behind. Corey De’Ath finished 5th at Milton Keynes, on Saturday, in a pb of 8.14.71, whilst Steve Strange raced on both evenings and recorded 8.21.71 in the latter.
Two open meetings took place at Bromley over the past week, with a sprint evening being held on Monday. Conditions were not conducive to fast times, but Anton Bachorski (u20) recorded 10.91 and Harriet Medlen (u15) 13.09 for 100 metres. Rebekah O’Brien (u20) showed improving form on Saturday with 15.37 for 100m hurdles and 66.02 for 400m hurdles. Also, over the hurdles, Elicia Lacey ran 12.20 for 75m, Amelie Rabbidge (u17) 12.75 for 80m and Isabelle Bridgeman (u17) 13.42 for 80m.
Annabel Carter continued to show her best-ever form, as she recorded a personal best over 1500m at Bromley with 4.41.75, whilst there were also bests for Ethan Rocks (u17, 800m in 2.04.46) and Isaac Arnott (u17, 3000m in 9.18.70). Michael Ellis finished 2nd in the 5000 metres in 15.41.03. In the 3000m walk, Grazia Manzotti (w50) set a new pb of 16.38.80, whilst Lewis Burr (u15) made his debut in 19.14.54.
The Tonbridge under 13 and 15 squad finished 3rd of 8 teams in the opening Kent Young Athletes League meeting, at Dartford, on Sunday. Individual wins came from Joe Stone in both the under 15 High Jump with 1.50m and Long Jump with 5.89m, the former adding 12cm to his best from last year. Isabelle Cannon won the under 15 Discus with a pb of 26.12m and Elicia Lacey won the hurdles, in the same age group, with 12.2.
Away from the track, Verity Hopkins, continued her string of superb performances, over a range of distances. On Saturday, she won the women’s race at the Dorney Lake Half Marathon in79.38, which was an improvement of almost twelve minutes on her time set just over a year ago, at the Tunbridge Wells event.