Photo – Maddison Illsley, who travelled all the way from Glasgow to Stevenage and back to compete.
The Tonbridge Athletic Club men’s and women’s squad produced their best team performance of the season so far, to win their National League Championship match, at Stevenage, on Saturday. Tonbridge scored 530 points to finish clear of Sale Manchester by 36 points, with Havering third and five other clubs further back.
The result means that Tonbridge moved to 4th in the Championship Division, of sixteen clubs and will be in the match that will decide promotion to the Premier Division, which takes place towards the end of August. The defeat of Sale and Havering was particularly significant since both had been positioned above Tonbridge in the division.
Charlie Crick confidently front ran the men’s 800 metres, despite the windy conditions and won in 1.52.68, whilst Sean Molloy employed sit and wait tactics to only take the lead in the last 100 metres of the 1500m, to win in 3.55.60. Bradley Burke front ran the 3000m steeplechase to win in 9.39.96 and Lewis Church was once again a key scorer for the club, across multiple events, including wins in the 110m hurdles in 15.24, plus the High Jump with 1.92 metres.
In the final event of the day, the 4x400m squad of Charlie Crick, Jordan Chambers, Toby Emm and Sean Molloy had a good win in 3.21.96, whilst one of the highlights of the day was the return of Paul Dawson in the throws. Dawson was having his first competition for 13 years and finished 2nd in the Hammer Throw with 42.72m and 3rd in the Shot Put with 12.12m.
The women had some terrific performances, although not a single A-string win came their way. The closest they got was in the final event, the 4×400 metres relay, where Herts Phoenix just beat the Tonbridge team by 0.11 seconds. In the shorter relay, over 4x100m, the team of Asha Root, Samantha Stubbs, Maddison Illsley and Harriet Medlen finished 3rd, but set a new Tonbridge record of 49.56. Root also took 2nd place in the 200m in 25.75, running her fastest time for four years.
Tonbridge had three runners on international duty at the weekend, with Max Nicholls, Nichola Evans and Ben Reynolds competing on different surfaces. Nicholls finished 18th and second scorer for the Great Britain team at the European Mountain Running Championship, in Spain. Nichola Evans was 5th, whilst running for the England veterans’ team, on the road, over 5km at Tenby, Wales. Evans ran 18.37, only just outside her pb. Ben Reynolds competed in the European Masters Championships, at Tampere, Finland, where he finished 3rd in the over 55 age group 5000 metres in 16.44.75.
On Sunday, the under 13 and 15 squad finished 4th of 6 teams in their UK Youth Development League match and are on course to maintain their Premier Division status. There were under 15 wins from Ollie Head (1500m 4.15.93 pb), Sam Newton (High Jump 1.74m pb and Discus 28.80m). The High Jump performance ranks him 7th in the UK for this season. In the same age-group there were wins for Evie Dixon (200m 26.24), Elicia Lacey (75m hurdles 11.72) and Emily Willcox (Hammer Throw 22.24m pb). Louis Ib was the only under 13 winner with a High Jump clearance of 1.52m, although Matthew Buttery once again set a 150m record of 19.20, when finishing 2nd.
On Saturday, James West attempted to improve his 5000 metres time, at the Morton Games, near Dublin, Ireland, but only managed 13.58.13, in extremely wet conditions.