Photo – National Champions (James Kingston, Jack Higgins, Ted Higgins, Alex Howard)
Tonbridge Athletic Club’s men captured the National Cross Country Relay Championship for the second time in their history, on Saturday, with an outstanding performance.
The championships were held at the traditional venue of Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, with the men’s race comprising four legs of five kilometres, over the undulating park and woodland course. There were 172 teams starting the race, with some of the strongest runners on the first leg. Jack Higgins went for Tonbridge and had an excellent run, coming home in 12th place, recording 14.59 and crucially was just nineteen seconds behind the leaders and well placed in relation to the likely contenders.
Alex Howard took over on leg two and ran 15.24, moving Tonbridge into 3rd place at the halfway stage. Gateshead led by a few seconds, from Herne Hill Harriers, with Tonbridge about 30 metres behind. Right behind Tonbridge were Cambridge and Coleridge, who had won the National Road Relay Championship, at the start of October, plus defending champions Shaftesbury Barnet.
Ted Higgins went on the third leg and had a race long battle with Jeremy Dempsey, from Shaftesbury, eventually nudging ahead at the finish, with both teams having passed Gateshead early on. However, Jacob Cann, from Western Tempo, caught and then went by both of them, recording the fastest leg of the day with 14.25. Higgins ran 14.58 and handed over to James Kingston for the anchor leg.
Kingston applied considerable pressure early on his leg and was soon at the front of the race, being tracked by Liam Dee of Shaftesbury Barnet. The gap remained at just a few seconds, but around the halfway stage of their leg, Kingston started to draw clear, eventually winning by 25 seconds. Kingston ran a 14.43 split, although was always ready to go quicker if needed. Cambridge and Coleridge came through to place third.
There were also some terrific results from the younger Tonbridge teams, where most of the races had around 100 clubs starting. The under 17 men finished 2nd to Blackheath over the 3 x 3 kilometres course, through Will Bachelor (9.09), Ewan Prendergast (9.08) and Oscar Graffin (9.21). It was the club’s best position in this event for ten years.
The under 15 boys were just four seconds away from a podium place of their own, when they finished 4th over 3 legs of 2km. Guy Bowers ran 6.28, Joel Graffin 6.35 and Luca Szumilewicz 6.42, improving significantly on their performance at the road relay championships a month ago.
The under 20 men’s team all had their best races of the season, with Harrison Fraser leading the first leg for a while and recording 8.57 on the 3 kilometres loop. He finished a close-up 10th before Toby Bawtree’s 8.53 split moved them o 3rd. Tom Claridge did all he could to keep the team in the hunt for medals, but finished 5th with a 9.01 split.
The under 17 women’s squad of Neve Raymond, Isla Murray and Isabel Gowing placed a very good 13th, once again a performance that was better than Tonbridge had managed in that race for a few years. The under 20 women were 15thoverall, although five of the teams ahead were university squads. Florrie McIver-Hall, Polly Moses and Jess Poland were the runners. Finally, the senior women’s team of Charlotte Alexander, Amelia Beeston and Anna Palmer finished 26th of 122 teams in their race.
