Photo – Alex Howard and Ben Cole with trophies
The Tonbridge Athletic Club men’s team captured the South of Thames Cross Country Association Championship, at Aldershot, on Saturday, led home by excellent individual performances from Ben Cole and Alex Howard. The race was over three laps, making up a total of twelve kilometres, over parkland plus woodland sections.
Cole was in the leading group of four, with teammate Corey De’Ath being one of the first to push the pace along. However, by halfway De’Ath had slipped off the pace, leaving Cole alongside Pete Chambers from Highgate, who was running as a non-scoring guest and Josh Hobbs from Brighton. Chambers pulled ahead in the last mile to win in 38.20 by ten seconds from Cole. Cole was awarded the individual title and trophy.
Alex Howard ran one of his best cross-country races, pacing the distance to perfection as he moved through from around 10th place after the first lap to 4th with 300 metres to go, before sprinting passed Hobbs for 3rd. Steve Strange finished 6th, Corey De’Ath 8th, Sean Molloy 11th and Matthew Dubery 17th as Tonbridge scored 47 points to win from Guildford and Kent AC.
Tonbridge also won the twelve to score contest, again from Guildford, adding to the scorers through 20th Jamie Bryant, 26th George Marshall, 49th Jay Smith, 50th Tony Bennett, 55th Tom Rule and 84th Tom Richards.
Secker and Stone win indoor titles
Matilda Secker won the South of England under 17 women’s Pentathlon title, at Lee Valley on Sunday, scoring 3171 points, to win by 71 points and finish clear of the other 23 competitors. Secker’s performances included 9.24 for 60 metres hurdles, 1.65m for High Jump, 8.34m Shot Put, 4.94m Long Jump and 2.41.87 for 800 metres. Neve Bachelor scored 2681 points to finish 8th in the same competition.
At the same meeting, Joe Stone captured the under 17 men’s Heptathlon title, scoring 4161 points to win by more than 300 points. His sequence of events was made up of 60m in 7.31, a Long Jump of 6.18m, Shot Put of 11.03m, a 1.56m High Jump, 60m hurdles in 8.97, a Pole Vault clearance of 2.80m and a 1000m in 2.54.67. Sam Newton finished 4th in the same competition.
Tonbridge had one runner in action at the Indoor 60 metres races, at Sutcliffe Park, near Lewisham, on Sunday, as Elicia Lacey (under 17) ran 8.17 to equal her personal best.