Photo – Lewis Church in Gotzis (photo by James Rhodes)
Lewis Church, of Tonbridge Athletic Club, travelled to Gotzis in Austria, for the annual Hypo International Multi Events Meeting, at the weekend.
The event is considered one of the most prestigious international fixtures, only surpassed by major Games, such as the Olympics and World Championships. Each year the top male Decathletes and female Heptathletes are invited to compete, with Lewis Church receiving his invitation recently, after scoring 8067 points in Italy, at the end of April.
On this occasion, Church finished 13th of the 32 starting competitors, scoring 8093 to improve his own club record by 26 points. He started the first day with a 100 metres personal best of 11.00 and followed that with a 7.02m Long Jump, 15.11 Shot Put and 2.03m High Jump. He ended the day with another pb in the 400m with 49.68. On day two, he was very close to his 110m hurdles best with 14.47, following up with a 44.61m Discus, 4.70m Pole Vault and a 54.95m Javelin. He finished with a 1500m in 4.21.23, less than a second slower than his best-ever run.
Church’s score leaves him short of the qualifying standard for this year’s World Championships, which is 8250 points, but he will be hoping to improve further, also having his thoughts focussed on next year’s European and Commonwealth Championships.
A busy weekend for Tonbridge saw teams compete in the National Athletics League fixture at Poole on Saturday and then host a UK Youth Development League fixture, at Tonbridge, on Sunday. In both matches Tonbridge finished third of six competing clubs. The masters’ teams also competed in the Southern Counties Veterans League on Friday evening, winning both the men’s and women’s matches.
At the National League, Tonbridge finished behind the hosts Bournemouth and Crawley, but ahead of Portsmouth, Southampton and Kingston. Steve Simmons won the Discus and Shot Put, the latter with a pb of 13.67m. There were Javelin victories for Harry Kendall and Emma Cowell, the latter throwing a pb of 35.98m. On the track, A-string wins came from Tom Richards (400m hurdles), Michael Ellis (Steeplechase), Matilda Secker (100m hurdles, 14.61 pb), Ella Thomas (400m 59.73 pb), Katie Goodge (1500m) and the women’s 4x100m relay team.
The under 13 and 15 squad competed on Sunday, in the Premier Division of their league and continue to perform well against some of the strongest clubs around. On this occasion they finished behind Woodford and Blackheath, but ahead of Reading, Herne Hill and Bracknell.
Amongst the top performances for Tonbridge were two under 13 girls’ records from Lili-Elle Addy, who won the 75m in 10.03 and 150m in 19.60. In the same age group, Laura Wrigley won the Javelin with 27.75m and Theo Adkin won the 75m hurdles in 13.65. The 4x100m relay team of Adkin, Freddie Keem, Pierre Espirit-Tabiowu and Etienne Menardi-Jones broke the Tonbridge age record and won with a time of 51.20. In the under 15 age group, there were wins for Luca Szumilewicz (1500m), Osarode Oviawe (Hammer), Oliver Clark (Javelin) and Tiffany Oyewale (Shot Put).
Away from the league action, Lucy Tallon improved her Tonbridge AC women’s 100m record to 11.54, at Lee Valley, on Sunday, whilst also running her fastest ever 200m in 23.48, although with a tail wind over the legal level for record purposes.
Amongst the other highlights from last week, Ted Higgins ran 1500m in 3.41.90, finishing second at the Wimbledon 1500m Festival Night, on Wednesday. This was a personal best, with Higgins just 0.02 seconds behind the winner.
Above – 3000m women at the Southern Counties Veterans League
Above – Ted Higgins in a close 1500m finish at Wimbledon