Photo – The TAC men’s team
The Tonbridge Athletic Club men’s team completed a successful Winter season when they finished 2nd in the National 12 Stage Road Relay Championships, on Saturday. After more than three hours of racing they were just 37 seconds behind the defending champions, Bristol and West.
The silver medals added to their collection from the National Championships, across the last few months where they also won the National Cross Country Relay title and the English National Cross Country Championships, plus finishing second at the six-man relay Championship in October.
The race on Saturday consisted of twelve legs of an undulating 5.47 kilometres loop of Sutton Park, near Birmingham, with 61 teams starting, having qualified from the regional championships two weeks earlier. These included the best from Scotland and Wales.
Jack Higgins ran the opening leg and finished 4th , with a 15.58 split, before handing over to Lewis Mills, who slipped just two places with 16.41. Cameron Chambers then ran 17.24 to come home 14th, before Jamie Macdonald’s 16.17 moved the team up to 7th. Harrison Fraser and Toby Bawtree, the two youngest members of the team, both ran 16.44, to put Tonbridge 8th at the halfway stage.
The Tonbridge team had more experienced runners lined up for the second half of the race, with Alex Howard clocking 16.09, on the seventh stage, moving the team to 5th. Jordan Chambers maintained this position with 17.07, whilst James Crombie’s 16.51 kept them in contention, in 6th. Then came James Kingston, who ran 15.19, moving Tonbridge into 2nd place behind Bristol and West. Kingston’s outstanding run was the fastest of the entire race.
Kieran Reilly, who had anchored Tonbridge to their first-ever National Championships back in 2015, ran 16.30, but could not close on Bristol. Then, despite running the 4th fastest time from more than 700 runners, Ted Higgins recorded 15.37 to secure the silver medals.
Tonbridge had won the championship in 2018 and 2022, whilst this was only their third occasion on the podium of a championship, which tests the depth of the best distance running clubs in the country.
The first Tonbridge team to compete, in a league track and field event this season, was the under 12 squad, who finished 2nd in the Kent Young Athletes League fixture, at Dartford, on Saturday. They finished just behind Invicta East Kent, but ahead of the six other clubs. The only individual win came from Betty Powell in the Javelin. There was also a win for the Girls’ 4x100m relay team of Aerin Bell, Betty Powell, Millie Woolacott and Evie Moon.
At the Medway and Maidstone Open Meeting, held at Gillingham, on Sunday, one of the Tonbridge highlights came from Ella Thomas (under 20), who ran a big personal best of 57.67.
Above – James Kingston ran the fastest leg at the National Road Relay Championships