Photo – Lucy Tallon wins the women’s 100 metres
Tonbridge Athletic Club started this season’s National League campaign off with a commanding win at Basingstoke, on Sunday. They scored 603 points to the host club’s total of 515, with Kingston third on 501, plus Havering, Southampton, Yeovil, Bournemouth and Peterborough & Nene Valley further behind.
The Tonbridge male Decathletes and female Heptathletes made a huge contribution to the overall strength of the team. Lewis Church won the Pole Vault with 4.70 metres, whilst Harry Kendall won the 200 metres in 21.74, which was his first-ever clocking under 22 seconds. These two also racked up plenty of points from other events. On the women’s side Lucinda White, Georgia Baker, Saskia Lean and Freya Ridge all contributed significantly, completing three or four events each, with Ridge 2nd in the High Jump with 1.60 metres.
Darian Moore was an impressive winner of the men’s 100 metres in 10.57, which was a personal best, whilst in the B-string race Oliver Brooke finished 2nd in 11.02, as he closes in on a sub 11 mark. Lucy Tallon captured the women’s 100 metres victory in 12.15, having her first taste of senior league competition, at this level.
After winning the South of England title last week, Kieran Eland won the 400 metres in 48.23, with Charlie Crick running a personal best of 48.90 to win the B-string. Crick had earlier won the B-string 800 metres in 1.52.25, where Ben Murphy won the separate A-string race in 1.53.35. Also ensuring good points from the middle-distance races, Jordan Chambers won a very competitive men’s 1500 metres in 3.59.73, as five runners finished within 1.3 seconds of each other.
It was also good to see Paul Dawson finishing 3rd in the men’s Hammer with a throw of 41.84 metres. Dawson hadn’t competed in the sport between 2013 and last year, but looks like being a useful contributor for Tonbridge in the throws.
Tonbridge are in the Championship Division, which consists of sixteen clubs, who compete across three matches, before deciding the top four, who will gain promotion to the Premier Division. The next match will be in mid-July at Chelmsford, with the final match at Liverpool in August.
On Saturday, there were plenty of Tonbridge young athletes competing in the Kent Schools Championships, at Gillingham, including two club under 17 record performances from Elicia Lacey and Joe Stone. Lacey won the Inter Girls 80 metres hurdles in 11.50, which puts her 3rd in the UK rankings, whilst Stone ran 49.41 for 400 metres, ranking him 4th in the country.
On Sunday, in very warm conditions, Lucy Reid won the Swansea Half Marathon in 74.22, whilst Charles Adair won the Weald 50km multi-terrain race in 4 hours 29 minutes and 58 seconds. Phoebe Barker had a good race over 5000 metres at the British Milers Club Grand Prix, at Loughborough, on Saturday, when she ran a new personal best of 16.10.25 to finish third.
Above – Harry Kendall wins the men’s 200 metres