Photo – Amelie Rabbidge winning the under 20 women’s 100m hurdles at the Kent Championships
The Kent Track and Field Championships took place at Ashford, over the weekend and with the warm and generally still conditions, athletes produced some significant performances.
Tonbridge Athletic Club had three individual gold medallists from the track events, all of which came from the women’s events. Asha Root had a breakthrough performance when winning the senior women’s 400 metres in 54.87, improving her personal best by 0.8 seconds.
In the under 20 women’s 100 metres hurdles, Amelie Rabbidge dipped below 15 seconds for the first time to win with 14.77. Matilda Secker finished second in 15.25. Lucy Tallon won the under 20 women’s 100 metres in 12.09 on Sunday, having finished 2nd in the 200 metres the day before, when setting a new Tonbridge AC record of 24.22. Alexia Scotiniadis won the under 20 women’s 400 metres in 60.40.
In the field, Ella Thomas won the under 17 girls’ High Jump with 1.65metres and Matilda Secker won the under 20 women’s event, with the same height. Sam Newton captured a third High Jump title for the club, by winning the under 17 men’s event with 1.88m.
Kirsty-Anne Ebbage won gold medals in the Senior Women’s Shot Put, with a pb of 11.66m and Discus with 44.67m and was runner-up in the Hammer Throw with 45.08m. Lucinda White cleared 3.35m to win the under 20 women’s Pole Vault. Alex Stone won the Senior Men’s Triple Jump, with 12.93 metres. Felix Mcardle-Hodge threw 53.59m to win the under 20 men’s Javelin.
Toby Gwinnell won both the under 15 boys’ High Jump with 1.75m and the threw 47.74m to win the Javelin. He also threw 34.96m as runner-up in the under Discus, making all three performances personal bests.
There were a number of other silver medals won, including Cameron Chambers in the men’s 1500 metres with 3.57.69, Kieran Eland over 400m in 48.15 and George Blake in the Senior Men’s 400m hurdles with 55.66. Emily Ghose was 2ndin the women’s 3000 metres walk in 16.16.85.
Neve Bachelor made her 400m hurdles debut and ran 64.29 to finish 2nd in the under 20 women’s final. Under 17 age group hurdlers Elicia Lacey (80m in 11.89) and Araba Taylor (300m in 46.72) both captured silver medals.
Joe Stone finished 2nd in the under 20 men’s Long Jump with 6.36m and Amelia Cannon collected a silver medal in the under 15 girls’ Hammer Throw with a pb of 32.12m.
Away from Kent, Exeter University student, Jamie Macdonald won the Devon men’s 1500 metres championship in 4.02.77.
Tonbridge AC’s Lewis Church and Harry Kendall competed in an international Decathlon, in Tenerife, over the weekend, finishing 3rd and 6th. Church scored 7742 points, just 31 points short of his best-ever total and Kendall amassed 7475. The performances moved them to 2nd and 4th on the UK rankings for 2024. There were three personal bests for Church, which came from the 100m in 11.29, 400m in 50.10 and the 110m hurdles in 14.45.