Photo – Lucy Tallon, who broke the TAC women’s 200m record
Whilst the Olympics have been staged in Paris, the athletics season in the UK has entered its final few weeks. Tonbridge Athletic Club held the final evening open meeting of the season on Tuesday and will host the Mike Rowbotton Memorial meeting on Bank Holiday Monday 26th August, at Tonbridge School Track.
At the open meeting, the highlight performance came from Kieran Eland, who finished second in a very strong 400 metres in 47.58, which broke the Tonbridge club record. The previous mark had been set by Lewis Collins at 47.74, in 2019. In the same race, Jack Higgins, had inched ahead of Eland in the last 50 metres, but finished just 0.06s away in 47.64, to run the second fastest ever time.
Eland had run 100 metres in 11.18 earlier in the evening, when he finished second to training partner Henry Marshall, who recorded 11.14. In the 1500m races, the Tonbridge highlights were Purdey Hutchings, who is in the under 15 age group, running a personal best of 4.44.81, whilst Jordan Chambers won the fastest race of the evening in 3.53.25. In the Javelin, David Fullbrook was the best of the Tonbridge throwers, with a mark of 46.37m.
On Sunday, Lucy Tallon improved the Tonbridge AC women’s 200 metres record to 24.04, at a meeting at Lee Valley in north London. Tallon’s previous best was 24.22 and the run erased any doubts about the record, since it had been previously listed as 24.1 from 1986, achieved by a short-term visitor to the club. Tallon’s time also improved the club under 20 women’s age group mark.
James West returned to racing action, after a few weeks managing an injury, when he finished second in the British Milers Club Grand Prix 1500 metres, at Bury, near Manchester, on Saturday evening. West ran a season’s best time of 3.36.18, finishing behind Cooper Teare of the USA. At the same meeting Alasdair Kinloch was fifth in the 5000 metres in 13.58.93.
The Tonbridge AC under 13 and 15 squad won the final match of the Kent Young Athletes League, at Dartford, on Saturday, which gave them second place to Blackheath, in the end of season standings. Wins in the under 15 age group were recorded by Tiffany Oyewale (75m hurdles) and the boys 4x300m relay squad. Seren Field won both the under 13 girls’ Discus and Javelin, whilst Aimee Watts won the 800m, in the same age group. There were also wins in the under 13 boys’ events from Freddie Keem (200m), Theo Adkin (75m hurdles), Zach Ward (High Jump) and the 4x100m relay team.
The only Tonbridge medal winners at the South of England age group championships, held at Walton, across the weekend, were Grazia Manzotti, who finished third in the senior women’s 5000m walk and Ella Thomas who was second in the under 17 High Jump.