Photo – James Kingston with the leaders in the men’s race, at UK Inter Counties
Tonbridge Athletic Club had twenty members competing at the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, at Wollaton Park, Nottingham, on Saturday, with almost all of them part of the Kent squad.
The event was also the final trial for the Great Britain teams to compete at the upcoming World Cross Country Championships, in Serbia. The winners of the senior races were guaranteed a GB team spot, with others in close contention, likely to be considered.
Spearheading the Tonbridge performances were two fine runs from James Kingston and Phoebe Barker, who have both been very consistent over the last few months. Kingston was always in the lead group of six men, who had broken clear, early in the men’s race. He fought hard, as the lead group was reduced to just four, with about a kilometre to go, of the 10k race. It was here that he finally lost contact and finished 4th, nineteen seconds behind the winner, Calum Johnson, from the North-East.
Barker had finished second in the Cambridge Half Marathon, the previous weekend and sat back a little during the initial charge in the women’s race, which was over 8 kilometres. She gradually moved through the field and at one point in the second half, was closing in on the top six. She eventually finished 8th and like Kingston, posted the highest position achieved at the championships, by a Tonbridge athlete this century.
Ben Cole had a terrific run to finish 19th in the men’s race, being the second home for Kent, whilst Matthew Taylor also excelled in 59th. Polly Pitcairn-Knowles finished 137th in the women’s race. The Kent men’s team was 5th, whilst the women won the bronze medals.
From the younger age groups, Harrison Fraser was the third Kent scorer in the under 17 men’s race, placing an excellent 29th and helping the team to bronze medals. Peter Fitzmaurice was 49th in the under 15 boys’ event and Emily Geake scored for the Kent team, when she finished 85th in the under 17 girls’ race.
Sam Newton, showed that he has the potential to be the next in the line of a number of top Tonbridge AC multi-eventers, when he placed 4th , of thirty starters, in the under 17 men’s National Indoor Heptathlon Championship, at Sheffield. Newton scored a personal best points’ total of 4477, which included pb performances in six of the seven events.
His first day events consisted of a 60 metres sprint in 7.66, Long Jump of 6.12 metres, Shot Put at 12.69m and High Jump at 1.89m. The last event was the only one short of his best and even then he cleared the highest mark of all the competitors. On day two, he proceeded to run 60 metres hurdles in 8.74, clear 2.90m in the Pole Vault and finished with a 1000 metres in 2.55.21.
Above – Phoebe Barker (731)