Photo – TAC under 13 and 15 squad at Manchester
The Tonbridge Athletic Club under 13 and 15 age group squad produced a magnificent result, on Saturday, when they finished third in the UK Youth Development League National Final. The match took place, at Sports City, Manchester and featured the top seven clubs from across the UK, who had qualified from the regional divisions.
After the fifty events had been completed, Blackheath and Bromley came out on top with 662 points, with Rugby and Northampton 2nd with 634 and Tonbridge 3rd with 546. Wirral, City of York, Cheltenham and Giffnock North of Scotland completed the line-up.
There were plenty of good performances, but it was the overall strength of the team, which secured the victory as two busloads of competitors and supporters travelled to the final. Individual A-string victories came from Elsa Pawson (under 15 girls’ Pole Vault, 2.80 metres), William Law (under 15 boys’ Javelin, 49.02m and Seren Field (under 13 girls’ Javelin, 29.39m). Victor Watling tied for first place in the under 13 boys High Jump with 1.45m.
Runners-up medals were won by Devon Brewer (under 15 boys’ Pole Vault, 2.30m), Luca Szumilewicz (under 13 boy’s 800m), Ayanfeoluwa Afolabi (under 3 girls 75m, 10.16) and Purdey Hutchings (under 13 girls’ 800m). Two club age group records were also set, with Sam Gibson running 10.02, in the under 13 boys’ 75 metres to beat his own mark and the under 13 girls’ 4x100m relay team. The latter ran 54.72, taking 0.04 from the old mark, with the team comprised of Ayanfeoluwa Afolabi, Tiffany Oyewale, Erin Tuffield and Brianna Raymond.
Earlier in the week, Tonbridge AC hosted their traditional Bank Holiday Monday open meeting at Tonbridge School track, which was attended by about three hundred athletes, plus a similar number of spectators. Amongst the highlight performances on the track, Harry Kendall ran the fastest 300m in 34.77, Charlie Crick won the Invitational 500m in 63.41 and Phoebe Barker moved to second on the Tonbridge AC all-time women’s 5000m rankings with 15.54.05. In the field, Lewis Church won the Pole Vault with 4.65m, Kirsty-Anne Ebbage was the best female Hammer and Discus thrower with 47.26m and 42.00m, respectively, whilst Isaac Ridge (under 20) was the best Javelin thrower with 50.98m.
On Sunday, Lucy Reid finished as 7th female at the Big Half Marathon, in London, in 73.57, whilst Imogen Amos recorded 78.52. More locally, Jack Sharpe won the Weald 10k road race in 35.31, whilst Lizzie Owen was first female in 42.50.
Over the weekend there were a few Tonbridge AC veterans’ records set. Steve Tester improved the men’s over 40 age record for 200m, when he clocked 23.40. This was after he had run a season’s best for 400 metres of 51.55. At Derby, at the British Veterans Championships, Tom Richards improved his own club over 35 men’s record at 400m hurdles to 60.28, to win the bronze medal in that division. Alan Newman became the first club member to run under six minutes for 1500 metres, in the over 70 age group, when he ran 5.56.63. At the same meeting Grazia Manzotti won the over 50 women’s 3000m walk in 16.32.53.