Photo – Aoife Foley wins under 15 girls’ 1500m
The Kent County Athletics Championships took place across both days of the weekend, at the Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford, with glorious sunshine greeting athletes, supporters and officials. With four age groups involved, from under 15 to under 17, under 20 and seniors, Tonbridge Athletic Club members came away with 51 medals, consisting of 15 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze.
At senior level, there were six gold medals won. Asha Root won the women’s 400m in 55.28 and Jess Daly the 200m in 27.32. Ted Higgins won tactical races over 800m and 1500m, in the men’s events, in 1.57.65 and 4.01.14, whilst Alex Stone won gold with a 12.90m Triple Jump. Towards the end of Sunday, Lewis Mills had his first steeplechase race for two years and won over 2000m with a championship best performance and personal best of 5.52.68.
The under 20 age group multi-eventers were in good form, with Sam Newton winning the men’s High Jump with 1.85m and the Long Jump with 6.67m. He also won a silver medal in the Javelin with 47.53m. Matilda Secker competed in the same combination of women’s events, winning the High Jump with 1.73m, plus finishing 2nd in the Javelin and 3rd in the High Jump. Polly Moses won the 1500m steeplechase, making her debut at the distance in 5.46.66.
Three gold medals came from the under 17 women, as Araba Taylor won the 300m hurdles, with a personal best of 45.17, whilst Saskia Taylor won the High Jump, improving her personal best by four centimetres to 1.66m. Aoife Foley won the 1500m on Sunday in 4.55.55, which was a personal best, having finished 3rd the day before in the 800m final.
Joel Graffin won an extremely competitive under 15 boys’ 1500m in 4.25.61, as five athletes finished within three seconds of each other. Victor Watling was the other gold medal winner from this age group, recording a High Jump best of 1.60m, adding four centimetres to his previous best.
On Sunday, several members of Tonbridge AC travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the marathon, where conditions were a little cooler than at the previous weekend’s London Marathon. Sean Molloy, better known as a middle-distance athlete, paced the race perfectly to record 2.23.10 and finish 19th overall, with what is the third fastest marathon ever by a Tonbridge AC athlete. Verity Hopkins also had a fine run, recording a personal best of 2.33.31and finishing 7th amongst the women. This kept her second on the club’s all-time rankings.
On Saturday morning there were a series of multi-terrain races, around Bewl Bridge Reservoir and Ollie White won the 10km event.