Photo – James Kingston after winning the Southern Cross Country Championship
James Kingston, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, produced one of his most dominant victories, when he won the men’s race, at the South of England Cross Country Championships, on Saturday. The event was held at Beckenham Place Park for the fifth year in a row and Kingston’s run gave him three wins from the last four years. He was second in the under 20 men’s race in 2022 and runner-up last year in the men’s event.
The nine-mile-long course, consisted of a short lap and two big laps and it was towards the end of the first lap that a gap between Kingston and Jack Kavanagh started to open. Kavanagh had defeated Kingston in their last encounter, a five-mile road race, before Christmas, but the longer course and terrain was potentially to Kingston’s advantage. Kingston was relentless and eventually built a huge lead, which at the finish was a minute and 25 seconds. Kingston ran 44.27, with Callum Charleston, of Aldershot, coming through for second, ahead of Kavanagh. Ben Cole was his ever-dependable self in 16th, with Mark Pepper in 72nd having one of his best races, from more than six hundred finishers. Tonbridge finished 9th as a team but aim to have many of their best runners back for the National Championships in a few weeks’ time.
The only team medals for Tonbridge came from the under 20 men’s squad, who placed 3rd in their championship. They were led home by an outstanding run from Tom Claridge in 4th. He was backed up by Jake Greenwood 28th, Harrison Fraser 29th and Sam Smialowski 32nd.
Anna Sharp was 37th in the women’s race, as the team finished 18th. In the young athlete races the under 17 women were 9th, under 17 men 10th, under 15 boys 6th, under 15 girls 9th and under 13 boys 14th. Again, most teams were missing some key runners, who should be back for the National Championships.
Jack and Ted Higgins raced at the Reykjavic International Games in Iceland, on Saturday over 1500 metres, against the reigning Icelandic record holder, Baldvin Magnusson. In a very close finish, Jack prevailed in 3.40.28, with Ted just 0.09 seconds behind and Magnusson third in 3.40.51.
On Sunday, Cole Gibbens showed that he is getting back to the form that he was in a year ago, when he won the Canterbury 10 miles road race in 50.17. Mason Willis was 5th in 54.21 and Dan Bradley 7th in 54.50. Helen Gaunt was 2nd in the women’s race in 60.41.
At Cardiff, Floyd Wilks won the British Masters Association Indoor Pentathlon title with 3198 points, whilst in the open 60 metres Diane Wright improved her own Tonbridge AC over 55 women’s record with 9.07.