Photo – TAC men’s team after winning the Kent Cross Country Championships
Tonbridge Athletic Club teams were in action at the Kent Cross Country Championships, held at Brands Hatch on Saturday and came away with seven team victories from the ten events. There were also four individual winners from the club. Tonbridge won all the male team titles at under 13, 15, 17, 20 and senior level, whilst also winning the under 20 and senior women’s categories. The club also won silver medals with the under 13 girls.
The two senior championships were won by Tonbridge athletes, as James Kingston and Phoebe Barker both took control of the men’s and women’s races in dominant fashion. Matthew Dubery won the under 20 men’s race and Toby Bawtree the under 15 boys’ race.
The men’s race had more than 200 finishers and was run over 12 kilometres, with Kingston winning by over a minute, from Marshall Smith, of Ashford. Alex Howard and Ben Cole finished 3rd and 4th for Tonbridge, with Cameron Chambers having his best race to date in 6th. Stuart Brown, returning to action after injury, ran well to place 10th and Dan Bradley completed the scoring six in 16th.
Phoebe Barker took the early lead in the women’s race over 8 kilometres and won by a huge margin of 92 seconds, from Kate Curran, of Cambridge Harriers. The team contest was extremely close, with just three scorers per team, as Lucy Thompson (4th) and Annabel Carter (8th) followed Barker home to score 13 points and win by a single point from Kent AC.
Matthew Dubery went straight to the front of the under 20 men’s race, building up a lead that was around sixty metres at one stage. However, the runners behind were closing at the finish and it was his teammate Ed Coutts who got closest, being just two seconds behind at the end. Jamie Macdonald had his best race of the season to finish 3rd.
Noémie Thomson showed that she is returning to her best form, as she led the Tonbridge team to a win in the under 20 women’s championship, finishing 2nd. Katie Goodge placed 4th and Ella Ayden 6th to complete the winning scoring team.
Tonbridge beat Blackheath to the under 17 men’s team championship, with the scorers being Tom Claridge (4th), George Hopkins (6th), Harrison Fraser (7th) and Mark Bridger (9th). Toby Bawtree reeled in the early leaders of the under 15 boys’ race, to win by just three seconds and lead Tonbridge to the team win, backed up by Connor Prendergast (3rd), Peter Fitzmaurice (10th) and Ben Catchpole (11th). The under 13 boys’ event was a closer team contest as Charlie Warren (2nd), Campbell South (6th), Oliver Lester (11th) and Luca Szumilewicz (14th) scored 33 points to Blackheath’s 36. Purdey Hutchings had a strong run in the under 13 girl’s race and with Isabel Gowing (13th) and Aoife Foley (17th) secured silver medals for the team. Neve Raymond was the first of the under 15 girls home in 13th and Jess Poland made her debut for the club finishing 12th under 17.
Church and White set indoor records
Lewis Church started his competitive year by finishing runner up at the National Indoor Men’s Heptathlon Championship, at Sheffield, over the weekend. He scored 5587 points, adding 96 points to his own Tonbridge record, set a year ago and finished behind Sam Talbot, from Sheffield. Church recorded three indoor personal bests, from the seven events. These came in the 60 metres with 7.34 seconds, Long Jump with 6.93 metres and the 1000 metres in 2.40.53. The four other events were Shot Put (13.85m), High Jump (1.98m), 60m hurdles in 8.36 and Pole Vault with 4.50 metres.
Lucinda White cleared 3.50 metres in a Pole Vault competition at Sutton, on Sunday, which added six centimetres to the previous Tonbridge AC women’s indoor record, which was ten years old.
Above – TAC individual Kent Champions, Toby Bawtree, Phoebe Barker, James Kingston and Matthew Dubery