Photo – The TAC under 13 girls team who won at the Kent Cross Country League
Tonbridge Athletic Club took one hundred runners to the first fixture of the Kent Cross Country League, on Saturday, which was held at Footscray Meadows, near Sidcup. There were races across the age groups, for both sexes, with plenty of encouraging performances from both relative newcomers to the sport and established seniors.
The Tonbridge men’s squad could not provide the individual winner, which was Twelde Menges, from Medway and Maidstone, but after that completely dominated affairs. Menges won in 26.58, with Corey De’Ath, showing his best form for a while for Tonbridge in 2nd with 27.27. The Tonbridge team then filled the next four places, through Cameron Chambers, Ted Higgins, Michael Ellis and Jack Higgins. This helped Tonbridge win both the four and twelve to score contests, with nineteen clubs contesting the former and three hundred runners starting.
There were also nineteen different clubs contesting the women’s three to score competition, but it was Blackheath who finished ahead of Tonbridge. Maria Heslop (6th), Polly Pitcairn-Knowles (9th) and Claire Day (14th) scored, from more than 150 finishers. Tonbridge reversed the positions in the six to score competition, adding Nichola Evans (16th), Lizzie Owen (19th) and Sasha Humphries (28th), to the scores.
The under 20 men won their team contest, through George Hopkins (3rd), Max Malkinson (4th) and Ewan Cuthbertson (6th). The under 13 girls excelled, led home by Purdey Hutchings in 2nd, supported by Sienna Ellis in 4th and Aimee Watts 7th, to win their team competition.
Tonbridge then had three runners-up team places, from the under 15 girls, under 15 boys and under 17 men. Isabel Gowing (5th), Millie Watts (6th) and Aoife Foley (8th) all ran superbly in the under 15 girls’ race, but still couldn’t overturn Blackheath, whilst it was a similar story in a hotly contested under 15 boys’ event, where the scorers were Peter Fitzmaurice (2nd), James Petrie (5th) and Ewan Prendergast (9th). Tonbridge missed the win by just one point in the under 17 men’s event, but would have won had there been four, rather than three to score. Toby Bawtree finished 2nd, just six seconds away from the winner and was backed up by the in-form Thomas Beghein (4th) and Connor Prendergast (5th).
Only four points covered the top three under 17 women’s teams, as Tonbridge finished third. Olivia Owen in 5th had her best race to date, with Emily Geake (8th) and Lily Slack (11th) in close attendance, being the other scorers. Jess Poland was the lone Tonbridge representative in the under 20 women’s race, finishing 10th. The final team result came from a third place by the under 13 boys, where Luca Szumilewicz led for some of the race, before finishing 3rd, with Jamie Rogers in 7th and Theo Ackerman 20th.
Reid sets new Tonbridge AC 10 mile road record
Lucy Reid finished 4th in the Great South Run 10 miles road race, at Portsmouth, on Sunday, with a time of 54.48, which took more than a minute from the Tonbridge women’s record, set by Miranda Heathcote, back in 1998.
There were plenty of big road races going on across the country and at the Manchester Half Marathon, Cole Gibbens finished 9th in 67.26, to become the seventh fastest-ever Tonbridge athlete over the distance.
Above – Lucy Reid amongst the leaders at the Great South Run