Photo – Lewis Church
Some of Tonbridge Athletic Club’s top athletes have already produced some records, despite the Summer track and field season only just starting up.
The club held its annual Norman Fowler Memorial Easter Monday Open Meeting, which was greeted by generally warm and sunny conditions and a big crowd of supporters, as almost five hundred competitors took part.
Decathlete Lewis Church showed terrific form across three events, running 16.53 in the 150 metres, which was a personal best and throwing the Discus 45.61 metres. However, it was his High Jump which caught the crowd’s attention, as they cheered him to a new pb of 2.07m, to eclipse his previous best, set in 2021, by two centimetres. This was also a new Tonbridge AC record.
On the track, possibly the highest quality race came in the 600 metres, where Ted Higgins took advantage of his brother Jack’s front running to overtake him in the final few metres and win in 1.17.65 to 1.17.82, both being inside Steve Fennell’s previous Tonbridge record, set sixteen years ago.
Other highlights on the track included Asha Root, just missing the club women’s 300 metres record by 0.05 seconds, when she ran a personal best of 39.85. Max Selby was the fastest of all the 1500 metres runners, winning the twelfth and final heat in 3.50.43.
A few days earlier, Lucy Tallon set a Tonbridge AC women’s 100 metres record of 11.77, at Bromley.
Also, at Tonbridge the thriving veterans’ section of the club were out in force and setting numerous records. Amongst these were Sally Vine running 23.23 for 150 metres, which is both an over 55 and 60 record, plus Richard Christian running 21.94 to set a men’s over 60, 150 metres record. Nick Armott set a new over 50 men’s 600 metres mark of 1.35.56, whilst Grazia Manzotti recorded 16.15.40 in the 3000 metres walk, which is an over 55 women’s record. Floyd Wilks improved his own over 55 men’s 300 metres mark to 41.05, whilst Bethan Armory ran 45.27 to set an over 45 women’s record.
Once again, Alan Marriott was the oldest competitor on Easter Monday, running 150 metres in 51.05 seconds, at 88 years old.