Photo – James Kingston
James Kingston anchored the Tonbridge Athletic Club men’s team to 7th place at the South of England Road Relay Championships, on Saturday. This achieved qualification for the National Championships, to be held at Sutton Coldfield, in early October.
There were 103 teams starting on the Rushmoor Arena circuit, at Aldershot, with six runners per team, each covering two laps and a total distance of six kilometres. Will Beeston ran an excellent opening leg, bringing the team home in 10thwith an 18.23 split, before Matthew Taylor gained a place with 18.33. Harrison Fraser, had been moved into the team, to cover for absentees and was going well to halfway on his leg, but a stomach issue developed and slowed him to almost a walk at one stage. He ran 20.11 and dropped to 20th place, with only the top 25 set to qualify for the National.
Matthew Dubery showed that he is running near to his best with a 19.05 clocking, moving up five places, before Alex Howard ran 18.57 to take the team to 13th. Then came Kingston who attacked his run from the start and ran 17.32, which was the fastest lap of the entire race by nine seconds.
Tonbridge had some solid performances from the younger age groups, with the under 13 girls 11th, under 17 men 12th, under 15 girls 12th and under 15 boys 14th, from typically fifty to eighty teams, in each competition. The over 50 women’s team also placed 5th in their race, through Maria Heslop, Grazia Manzotti and Rachel Fagg, with Heslop recording the fastest lap of the day.
Elsewhere, Lucy Reid showed that she is back to her very best by finishing second to Olympian Eilish McColgan at the Vitality London 10km road race, on Sunday. Reid ran 32.17, which improved her personal best and Tonbridge club record by 18 seconds.
At the Larkfield 10km road race, also on Sunday, Maria Heslop was back in action, finishing 2nd in the women’s category in 38.34. Dan Bradley finished 5th overall, followed home by 6th Nick Beer and 8th Mason Willis. Graeme Saker set a new Tonbridge over 60 men’s record of 38.38.
Amongst, other distance running performances at the weekend, Tom Rule placed 10th in the Chiltern Centurion Wonderland 50 mile race, on Saturday in 8 hours 35 minutes.
Newton claims English Schools title
Sam Newton won the English Schools Inter Boys Octathlon title at the weekend, scoring a personal best of 5353 points for the eight-event competition. This not only broke his own Tonbridge under 17 men’s record, but extended his lead at the top of the UK age group rankings, for the year.
Bronze medals were won by Toby Gwinnell in the Junior Boys Pentathlon and Matilda Secker in the Senior Girls Heptathlon. Dante McNichol was 5th in the Senior Boys Decathlon and Ella Thomas 6th in the Inter Girls Heptathlon, as the Tonbridge multi eventers completed a successful outdoor season.