Photo – Lucinda White who won the under 20 women’s Pole Vault
Tonbridge Athletic Club’s athletes collected 41 medals at the Kent Championships, held at Gillingham, across the two days of the weekend. Most of these came from the two younger age groups of under 17s and 15s, partly as a few of the club’s top senior competitors are focused on other competitions.
Perhaps the highlight performance came from Elicia Lacey, who won the under 15 girls’ 75 metres hurdles. Lacey won the final in 11.56, which would have been a club age group record, other than the fact that she had gone even quicker in her heat, earlier in the day, with 11.52. This moves her into third on the UK age group rankings this year.
Some of the sprinters produced very encouraging performances, with Oliver Brooke improving his 400 metres best to 50.69, when taking the under 17 men’s title. Joe Stone won the 200m, in the same age group, in 23.02 and beat Brooke by just three centimetres, when winning the Long Jump with 6.09m. Harriet Medlen ran 25.39, finishing 2ndover 200m in the under 17 age group, which was a personal best and not far from a club record. Amelie Rabbidge was impressive when winning the under 17 women’s 80 metres hurdles in a personal best of 12.11. Ethan Tasker improved his 200m best to 22.38, when finishing 2nd in the under 20 men’s championship.
There were Pole Vault wins for Lucinda White (under 20, 3.30m) and Emily Wilcox (under 15, 2.35m), plus two High Jump victories from Matilda Secker (under 17, 1.66m) and Samuel Newton (under 15, 1.60m)
Charlie Ellison (4.50.99) and David Barclay (4.57.91) finished 1st and 2nd in the under 17 men’s 1500m steeplechase, both running under five minutes for the first time.
Alex Hookway was the only senior athlete to win an event, setting a personal best of 12.24 metres in the Shot Put, whilst Annabel Carter went home with two silver medals from her 800m in 2.17.35 and 1500m in 4.41.54. Jordan Chambers missed winning the men’s 800m by 0.03s, when he was caught at the finish line and recorded 1.55.19, after a relatively slow first lap.
Both Tonbridge competitors in the 3000m walk won medals. Grazia Manzotti finished 2nd in the women’s race, setting a Tonbridge over 50 outdoor record of 16.15.24, just two days after finishing 4th, in the same age group, at the European 10km road championships, in Italy. Lewis Burr won the under 15 boys’ walk, at Gillingham in 17.17.78, which was a pb.
Away from the county championships, the most spectacular athletics meeting of the year took place at Highgate, known as the Night of the 10,000 metres PBs. A crowd of around five thousand attended to watch plenty of entertainment and a series of races over the 25-lap distance, culminating in the trials for this year’s world, European and Commonwealth Championships. Verity Hopkins improved her best to 35.24.53, whilst Ben Cole set a Tonbridge over 35 men’s record of 30.09.45.
At Birmingham, on Saturday, the British Milers Club held their first Grand Prix meeting of the Summer and Kieran Reilly finished 4th in the men’s 1500 metres A-race in 3.42.82, improving his best significantly, having been in the 3.45 range for a few years. Jamie Goodge with 14.29.41 and Alex Howard, with 14.42.59, both improved their track bests for the 5000 metres.
Earlier in the week, the Tonbridge squads had a successful evening at the first Southern Counties Veterans League meeting of the season, at Eltham, with both the men and women winning.