Reef Page (photo centre), from Tonbridge Athletic Club, won the South of England under 20 men’s indoor heptathlon title at the weekend, competing at Lee Valley Athletics Centre. He amassed 4469 points, which places him well inside the top ten in the UK for the year, for the age group.
He started, on Saturday, with a personal best of 7.57 over 60 metres and then added 6.09 metres for the Long Jump, 11.84m Shot Put and a 1.78 High Jump to complete day one. Sunday started with a 9.15 for 60 metres hurdles, followed by outright personal bests of 3.53m for the Pole Vault and 2.50.20 for 1000 metres. Page had gone into the final event two points behind Ryan Wells, from Wycombe, but his strong 1000 metres performance was enough to win the overall championship.
Barker and Kingston compete with UK’s best
Phoebe Barker finished 13th in the women’s race at the UK Cross Challenge event, at Sefton Park, Liverpool, on Saturday, which doubled as the GB trials for the upcoming European Cross Country Championships. At one stage, Barker’s outstanding run was putting her in contention of making the Great Britain team, as she had moved into 8th place, but her final place was the highest from any Tonbridge runner in the history of the event.
James Kingston found himself in an extremely competitive men’s race and despite finishing 21st overall, was the sixth runner home in the under 23 age group, which gives him a chance of making the GB squad in that category. At the time of writing the selection meeting had yet to take place. Matthew Taylor finished 27th in the under 20 men’s race and Harrison Fraser 41st in the under 17 men’s event.
At the Kent Cross Country League fixture, on Saturday, at Swanley Park, the Tonbridge women’s team finished second to Blackheath, in both the three and six to score contests. Polly Pitcairn-Knowles (5th), Maria Heslop (8th) and Anna Michael (10th) making her debut for the club, were the first home.
The under 13 girls clinched the Kent League title, with an impressive victory, headed by Purdey Hutchings winning the individual race, with Sienna Ellis (3rd) and Aimee Watts (7th) supporting her. The under 17 men also won on the day to take the overall league title. Ollie Head was first home in 5th, with Mark Bridger (6th), Tom Beghein (7th) and Samuel Smialowski (8th) all making the top ten. Bridger took the individual league title, after his performances across the four races in the series.
The under 20 men were also crowned league champions, after an unbeaten season. George Hopkins (2nd), Tom Lockhart (3rd) and Ewan Cuthbertson (6th) scored on this occasion. Both the under 15 girls and boys placed second on the day and were both led home by 5th place finishes from Isabel Gowing and James Petrie, respectively. Luca Szumilewicz gave Tonbridge their second individual win on the day, in the under 13 boys’ race, with Jamie Rogers (4th) and Victor Watling (10th) making his cross-country debut for the club.
Above – Phoebe Barker at Liverpool