Photo – Lewis Church tops the podium in Italy
Two of Tonbridge Athletic Club’s most significant club records were broken at the weekend, as Lewis Church improved his own Decathlon points total, and Cole Gibbens took more than two minutes from the men’s marathon mark.
Church was competing in the International Multistars Decathlon in Brescia, Italy, amongst a field that included some of Europe’s top multi-eventers. His previous best score was set at Hexham in June last year at 7852 points, but the 28-year-old has pursued an ambition to score over the 8000 points total for much of his career. He started competing with Tonbridge AC as an under 13 in 2008 and has been one of the club’s prolific performers throughout that time, gaining international honours along the way.
In Brescia, he was always near the top of the points table and eventually scored 8067 points to become only the eighth athlete in UK history to break the 8000 points barrier and is now 7th on the all-time list.
The weekend couldn’t have gone much better, as Church’s performances across the ten events were so consistently close to his best marks. He started off with a 100m in 11.16, which was a personal best by 0.1s. He followed with a Long Jump of 7.10m, Shot Put at 15.04m and a High Jump of 2.04m, before breaking the 50 second barrier in the 400m for the first time, with 49.84. This completed day one and then on Sunday he opened with 14.65 for 110m hurdles, followed by a Discus of 45.55m, a Pole Vault of 4.65m and a personal best Javelin of 58.73m. His weekend finished with a 1500m in 4.18.23.
Meanwhile, the London Marathon was taking place on Sunday, in warm conditions, which derailed the performances of many competitors. However, Cole Gibbens, showed that his consistent preparation, including many weeks of running over 100 miles paid off when he recorded 2.16.52 and be the second home in the non-elite, masses race. Gibbens ran the first half in 69.02, before completing the second in 67.50, to finish way inside his target. His time broke Henry Pearce’s Tonbridge AC record, set in 2019, by more than two minutes.
Also running outstandingly well was Helen Gaunt, who was 7th in the women’s mass start section in 2.36.25, which was less than a minute outside her pb. However, she broke the Tonbridge AC over 45 women’s record and the time ranks her third on the UK all-time list in this age category.
On Saturday, Rae Le Fay won the women’s 3000 metres steeplechase at the West Suffolk Steeplechase and Walks Festival, held at Bury St Edmunds. Le Fay recorded 10.37.23 to finish just seven seconds away from the under 20 women’s qualifying time for the European Championships, which she hopes to go after this season.
James Petrie won the under 17 men’s 1500m steeplechase in 4.34.08 and Jamie Macdonald was 2nd in the men’s 2000 metres steeplechase in 6.01.55.
Grazia Manzotti improved her own Tonbridge over 55 women’s 3000m walk record to 16.08.97, when winning the overall race at Bury St Edmunds. The time moves her to second on the UK all-time list for her age group.
Below photo – Cole Gibbens in the London Marathon
