Kingston leads Tonbridge to record team win

Photo – The TAC senior men with the Kent Cross Country Championship trophies

James Kingston won his third men’s Kent Cross Country title in a row, on Saturday, at Brands Hatch and in the process led the Tonbridge Athletic Club team to victory, with a record points score.

The men’s race is held over 12 kilometres, consisting of a small initial lap, followed by three large laps and early on it was a cagey affair, with a dozen runners in close proximity. However, at around the halfway mark Kingston was drawing ahead alongside Louis Small, from Ashford. Then with a lap and a half to go, Kingston managed to break clear, going on to win in 38.18, which was 41 seconds ahead of Small.

Alex Howard had one of his best cross-country performances to take the bronze medal and he was followed in by four more Tonbridge runners to complete the scoring six. Cole Gibbens (4^th), Lewis Mills (5^th), Matthew Taylor (6^th) and Will Beeston (7^th) all had strong second halves of the race, to give the club a scoring total of just 26 points, the lowest in the championships’ history. Ben Cole had also been inside the top five until his calf tightened in the latter stages and he dropped back to finish 13^th. Tonbridge also won the 12 to score competition, placing all their scorers in the first 39 runners home.

Tonbridge had just one other team victory, although gathered eight medals from the ten races. The under 17 men won through a scoring team of Toby Bawtree (2^nd), Ewan Prendergast (4^th), Connor Prendergast (5^th) and Will Bachelor (7^th). The under 20 men placed second to Invicta, although only three runners scored in this age group, whereas they would also have won in a four to score competition. Jamie Macdonald led them home in 4^th, followed in by Harrison Fraser (5^th), Isaac Arnott (7^th) and Tom Claridge (8^th).

Silver medals were won by the under 13 Girls, under 13 boys and under 15 boys. Aimee Watts (4^th), Arianne Launders (7^th) and Jess Hill (12^th) scored for the girls. Ellis Hill (4^th) and Sam Shearer (10^th) had excellent runs in the under 13 boys’ race, backed up by Daniel McPherson (12^th) and Ted Vallins (17^th). In the under 15 boys’ race, Oscar Cowling had probably his best-ever performance in 8^th, with Harry Lawrence also racing very well in 10^th, plus Theo Ackerman (12^th) and Oliver Lester (17^th) also scoring.

The under 20 women’s team took home bronze medals through Jess Poland (13^th), Amelia Beeston (14^th) and Ella Ayden (16^th), as did the under 15 girls through Aoife Foley (4^th), Isabel Gowing (5^th) and Hana Maeda (22^nd).

Elizabeth Owen was the first home from Tonbridge in the senior women’s race, placing 20^th, whilst the team finished sixth and Emily Boyd was 8^th in the under 17 women’s race.

Tonbridge AC have a few runners who qualify to compete in county championships, outside of Kent, such as Verity Hopkins who won the Sussex senior women’s title, at Bexhill.

In men’s championships, Mark Pepper finished 6^th in Shropshire and Ben Pearce was 16^th in Surrey.

Kieran Reilly finished 8^th in the Scottish Indoor 3000 metres championships, at Glasgow, where he ran 8.15.94, a fraction of a second outside his personal best.

Also indoors, a few Tonbridge AC veteran’s records have been set. Sarah Westrap-Boon ran over 45 age records for 60 metres and 300 metres recording 8.99 and 50.65, respectively. Steve Daly set over 50 men’s records at 60 metres and 200 metres, with 8.58 and 27.42.

Above – Verity Hopkins winning the Sussex Championships