Photo – The under 15 boys start at the Southern Championships
James Kingston, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, who only turned 21 years old the week before, produced a stunning individual victory at the South of England Cross Country Championships, on Saturday. In doing so he also led the Tonbridge team to a silver medal position, behind Highgate Harriers, as just two points separated the teams at the finish, with scores of 101 to 103.
The men’s race at the championships is probably the most challenging of the Winter season, being held over an undulating nine miles long course. This year the championships took place at Beckenham Place Park, with the men’s race consisting of one small lap, followed by three large laps. It was at the start of the third lap that Kingston started applying some pressure at the front of the race, with his closest challenger being Alex Leprêtre of Highgate, who had run inside 29 minutes for 10km recently.
Kingston pulled away to win by 39 seconds in 45.07, to capture his first major senior individual title. The ever-reliable Ben Cole finished 10th from 665 finishers, with Max Nicholls (13th) and Nathan Marsh (20th) all having excellent runs. Sean Molloy, who is more comfortable at middle distances on the track, was a revelation in 25th, as he finished strongly and Corey De’Ath (34th) completed the team score of 103 points. Highgate scored 101 and third-placed Hercules Wimbledon 125, as 44 teams closed, in what was a an extremely close contest.
The Tonbridge under 20 men’s team also found themselves on the wrong end of a close defeat, by Windsor, as they scored 50 points to 48. Ed Coutts was positioned in about 11th place at the halfway stage of the race, but had charged through to third with 50 metres to go. However, just a few metres from the line he was overtaken by Luke Birdseye of Windsor, who had finished 5th at the European Championships, in December. Jamie Macdonald also had a terrific race to finish 13th, with Isaac Arnott 16th and Matthew Dubery 17th.
The under 20 women’s team surprised themselves with a third-place finish, led home by Katie Goodge (12th), with Annabelle Hales (29th), Ella Ayden (31st) and Lydia Hawker (53rd) also scoring. The under 17 men’s team also won bronze medals through George Hopkins (9th), Tom Claridge (14th), Harrison Fraser (28th) and Jack Sharpe (70th).
In the first race of the day the Tonbridge under 15 boys’ squad had all run well to finish runners-up to Sutton and District. Toby Bawtree finished strongly to finish 6th, just three seconds ahead of Connor Prendergast (9th). Ben Catchpole placed 27th and Peter Fitzmaurice 44th, as 27 clubs completed scoring teams. The under 15 girls finished 14th, under 13 boys 6th and under 13 girls 8th, with the senior women’s team, far from at full strength in 20th.
The indoor track and field season continued with Tonbridge having athletes competing at Lee Valley and Cardiff. At the former Alexia Scotiniadis ran 41.44 in the under 17 women’s 300 metres, which improved the club’s age group record by 0.02 seconds. At Cardiff, Kieran Eland won the 400 metres in 49.87 at the Welsh Championships.