Photo – Sam Newton (bottom far right) at the schools international pentathlon
Sam Newton, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, finished fourth in the home countries Schools International Indoor Pentathlon, when representing England, at the weekend. Newton was competing in the under 17 competition, at the Emirates Arena, in Glasgow, on Saturday.
He opened with 8.43 in the 60 metres hurdles, before a 13.62 metres Shot Put, 200 metres in 23.56, a 6.59 metres Long Jump and 2.07.05 for 800 metres. These gave him a total points score of 3682, as less than 100 points covered the top four of the sixteen competitors, from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Newton has been an ever-present at Tonbridge AC training nights and the performance shows that his Winter training has been going extremely well, since all five marks were outright personal bests.
There were also several road races at the weekend, with one of the highlights in the South-East being the Brighton 10k, on Sunday. Cole Gibbens, who has been in fine form recently, managed to stay close to the lead group through halfway and eventually finished 4th with a personal best of 30.22, taking 36 seconds from his best, set last year. Steve Strange also ran a personal best of 31.15 to finish 10th, as 2432 finished.
At the Marden 10k and Half Marathon events, Elliot Green placed 5th over the longer distance in 78.40, which was a personal best. Tom Rule was first in the over 40 men’s category in 80.45, improving his pb by one second and Tony Fullbrook won the over 60 men’s division in 89.43. Sarah Cronin was 2nd in the women’s 10k race in 41.00.