The National Athletics League was due to launch last year, combining the men’s and women’s squads from the top clubs, which had operated separately, in previous years. The pandemic delayed the league launch until this Summer, but still adjustments had to be made, due to the current guidelines. Tonbridge are in the Championship South Division, alongside Crawley, Basingstoke and Bournemouth, with fixtures this year restricted geographically. There is also no promotion or relegation at stake, as the league is simply there to help facilitate competition returning.
It seems Tonbridge Athletic Club teams have suffered with the pandemic, so team managers have struggled to get strong squads out and the second match at Basingstoke was similar. In a close match, with the other three teams, Tonbridge finished fourth, although there were some outstanding individual performances.
Possibly the most impressive individual result came in the Pole Vault, from Lucinda White, who despite still being in the under 17 age group, added six centimetres to her personal best to scale 3.46 metres. This improved the Tonbridge under 17, 20 and senior records and is good enough to move her to second on the UK under 17 age group rankings this year. White convincingly won the competition and also Long Jumped 5.01 metres to finish 2nd, although with an illegal wind of 2.8 metres per second.
The women’s 400 metres supplied maximum points, as Emily Bowart (58.43) and Issy Fassnidge (59.14) won the A and B string races, the latter with a personal best. Bowart also combined with Asha Root, Freya Ridge and Nina Ridge to win the 4×400 metres relay at the end of the day (see photo).
Rebekah O’Brien is starting to show her best form, as she returns to full fitness. She set a personal best when winning the 100 metres hurdles in 15.35. The remaining female victory came in the High Jump from Freya Ridge who cleared 1.60m, whilst also contributing good points in the Long Jump, Shot Put and Javelin. Kirsty-Anne Ebbage finished 2nd in both the Discus (41.55m) and Hammer (40.88) and added more points in the Shot Put and Javelin. Lottie Richardson returned to the 2000 metres steeplechase, after a four year absence, to finish 2nd and trim her personal best to 8.05.44.
The men’s team had just one A-string win, which came from Steve Strange in the 5000 metres, who pulled away over the last kilometre to set a personal best of 14.46.65. There were a string of personal bests from the squad including Noah Friend (400m, 50.19), Jordan Chambers (800m, 1.55.70), Stuart Brown (800m 1.56.49), Sam Crick (400m hurdles 56.47 and 3000m steeplechase 10.07.17), Lewis Church (Discus 45.08m).