Photo – Jack and Ted Higgins battle for the win and record at Lee Valley
Jack Higgins once again just got the better of his twin brother Ted in their third indoor track encounter of the year. The Tonbridge Athletic Club runners finished first and second in the Ayo Falola Dream Mile, at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre indoor track on Wednesday evening. Their training partner Jordan Chambers was the nominated pacemaker and went through halfway in around 1.59, before Jack Higgins took up the pace.
The brothers were closely tracked by Joe Tuffin, from Birmingham and Harry Wakefield from Salford. However, with 400 metres to go Ted Higgins injected even more pace and helped the two from Tonbridge create a gap. The positions remained the same until the final 20 metres when Jack managed to squeeze past his brother and win in 3.56.89, with Ted second in 3.57.05. Tuffin and Wakefield also finished under four minutes, which the organisers claimed was the first time four Brits had run sub 4 minutes in an indoor race in this country. Jack Higgins’ time was the fastest ever mile run on the Lee Valley track and broke the Tonbridge AC indoor record set by James West six years ago.
At the same meeting Dylan Purton won the invitation men’s 400 metres in 48.90 and like the Higgins brothers, plus Chambers, is due to compete in this coming weekend’s UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Five Tonbridge AC members competed in England vests at the weekend, with four of them taking part in a multi-events competition in Sweden. Lewis Church won the men’s Heptathlon scoring 5778 points, just 53 points short of his personal best and club record. Steve Simmons was second on 5473 points, again just short of his best-ever score. Sam Newton finished fifth in the under 20 men’s Heptathlon competition and was the best of the English team. Newton scored 5109 points and broke his own Tonbridge record by 25 points. Ella Thomas was just four points away from her pb when scoring 3437 points in the under 20 women’s Pentathlon, where she was making her international debut.
The fifth England vest was worn by James Kingston, who raced the 10k men’s event at the UK Cross Challenge event, at Parliament Hill. Kingston finished third behind Hugo Milner and Richard Slade. Milner was fourth in the European Championships two years ago and Slade beat Kingston in last year’s National Championships. The three of them are due to match up again at the National Championships in just over a week’s time.
Amongst other performances at the weekend Amelia Beeston made her debut over 10km at the Battersea road race, on Sunday, where she was first female in 36.38. Mark Bridger was second over the same distance, at the Edinburgh Winter Warmer event, on Sunday.
Above – Lewis Church, Sam Newton, Steve Simmons and Ella Thomas all competed for England in Sweden