Photo – James West wins British Championships 5000 metres (courtesy of James Rhodes)
James West, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, produced the biggest win of his career, when he captured the British 5000 metres championship, at Manchester, on Sunday. This added to his National Indoor 3000 metres title, won in February. West ran 13.42.03 to improve his personal best by a couple of seconds and win by about a second from Emile Cairess, from Leeds. The early pace was relatively slow, until Jack Rowe from Aldershot pushed it along after 3km had gone by in 8.32. With a lap to go there were still four athletes in contention and it was Cairess who sprinted first, with West covering the move until the final 100 metres, when he went by.
Despite the win, West doesn’t have the qualifying time for the World Championships, which take place in Budapest in August, but he hopes to at least find some fast races for the remaining part of the season. Kieran Reilly qualified for the 1500 metres final, where he placed 14th, whilst Kieran Eland at 400m and Ben Murphy at 800m were eliminated after their heats.
The Tonbridge UK Youth Development League squad, for the under 13 and 15 age groups, had their best result of the season so far, when they finished second in the fixture held at Reading, on Saturday. Tonbridge are now in a strong second place of the six teams and have a good chance of qualifying for the end of season National Final.
There were four A-string wins, with one coming from each age group. Edward Tyler won the under 15 boys’ Hammer Throw with a personal best of 49.19m, which moves him to second on the UK age rankings for the year and Elsa Pawson won the under 15 girls’ Pole Vault with 2.80m. In the under 13 age group, Victor Watling won the boy’s High Jump with 1.45m and Seren Field threw the Shot Put a personal best of 7.16m to win the girls’ event.
The Tonbridge veterans’ squad was back in Southern League action, at home, on Friday evening and produced emphatic wins for both the men’s and women’s teams, to continue their unbeaten seasons, against the five other clubs.
There were some significant individual performances on the distance running front, over the course of the week. On Thursday evening, Lucy Reid won the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge race in London, with a time of 18.08 over the 3.5 miles long course. The previous evening Alex Howard had finished 2nd in the men’s race and then a few days later was also runner-up over 7km at a road race in Pollenca, Mallorca.
On Sunday, Matthew Taylor was a convincing winner of the Sevenoaks 7-mile multi-terrain race, in Knole Park, where Laura Andrade was also second female home.