Photo – Kieran Eland and Henry Marshall dead-heated over 200 metres at the Tonbridge Open Meeting
Tonbridge Athletic Club had league teams performing in both the youngest and oldest age groups over the weekend. On Friday, the club’s masters or veteran teams, which range from the over 35s to over 60s, won both the men’s and women’s matches in the Southern League Kent Division. Then, on Sunday, the under 13 and 15 age group squad produced an excellent third place of six teams in their match at Bromley, which was the first fixture in the top division of the UK Youth Development League.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, Tonbridge AC hosted the first of their Evening Open Meetings this Summer. Jamie Macdonald ran the fastest 800 metres of the evening, with a personal best of 1.59.28. Stuart Brown won the 3000 metres in 8.38.74, whilst Kieran Eland and Henry Marshall dead-heated over 200 metres in 22.68. Earlier Eland had just beaten Marshall by 0.01 over 100 metres, when he ran 11.33.
In the field events, on Tuesday, Ian Crawley set a new club, over-60 age group, record in the Discus with 38.19 metres. Elsa Pawson, as an under 15, Pole Vaulted a personal best of 2.80 metres. Reef Page (u20) was the best male Long Jumper with 6.16 metres and Ella Thomas (u17) the furthest female with a pb of 4.79 metres.
At the Southern Counties Veterans League fixture, at Eltham, on Friday evening, Tonbridge athletes notched up ten individual A-string victories, which included club records from Luke Williams (over 35, Pole Vault 3.62m), Lisa Knight (over 50, 400 metres 71.4) and Diane Bradley (over 60 Discus, 18.67m).
The youngest of the club’s members put up some impressive performances on Sunday, at Bromley, which included five A-string wins. Edward Tyler won the under 15 boys’ Hammer with 44.28m and Araba Tyler, the under 15 girls’ Javelin with 26.40m. In the under 13 age group, Victor Watling won the High Jump with a personal best of 1.41m and Sam Foster the boys’ Javelin with a pb of 29.29m. Tiffany Oyewale was an impressive winner of the under 13 girls’ 70 metres hurdles, setting a personal best of 12.28.
In Belgium, Anne-Sophie Bremans ran one of the fastest ever 400 metres by a Tonbridge female athlete, when she won in 55.71. On Sunday, Phoebe Barker won the 5000 metres for Cambridge University in the Varsity match against Oxford.
Stop Press – Luck Tallon set a Tonbridge AC under 20 women’s 100 metres record of 12.06 at Lee Valley on Sunday, with a wind reading of +1.9 m/s.