Photo – relay teams
It is that time of the year where the Summer track season events merge with a few Autumn road races, before cross country begins, for Tonbridge Athletic Club.
There were some excellent performances in road races, headed by James West winning the Friday Night Under The Lights 5km road race at Battersea Park, London, on Friday evening. Talk of a course recorded quickly subsided, after the start, as the lead protagonists produced a relatively tactical battle at the front. Jack Kavanagh tried to shake West off with a significant move with about 400 metres to go and looked like he had done enough to win. However, West found something extra in the last 100 metres and was able to dip for the line and win, as both recorded 13.52.
On Sunday, Phoebe Barker won the women’s race at the Basildon Half Marathon in 79.33. Meanwhile, Cole Gibbens made a good return to form, after a Summer sidelined by injury when he finished 22nd in the Great North Run Half Marathon in 65.51.
Also, on Sunday, at the Chevening Estate Multi-Terrain 10k race, near Sevenoaks, Peter Fitzmaurice was 3rd in the men’s race and Polly Pitcairn-Knowles was 3rd in the women’s event.
On Saturday, Tonbridge had teams competing in the Kent Relay Championships, at Ashford with seven gold and six silver medals being collected. In the 3 x 800 metres relays there were wins for the under 18 women, plus the under 16 boys and girls. The under 14 boys won the 4×200 metres and in the 4×100 metres finals gold medals went to the under 12 girls, under 14 girls and under 14 boys.
The British Veterans Athletics Championships took place at Derby across the weekend, where Grazia Manzotti won both the women’s 3000m and 5000m walk titles.
There have been some notable performances in September as the track season completes. Ted and Jack Higgins competed in the World Continental Tour Meeting, at Szczecin, Poland on, with both coming away with competitive performances.
Jack Higgins finished 5th over 800 metres in 1.45.49, whilst Ted Higgins finished 4th in the 1500 metres in 3.34.89. The latter was a personal best by 1.8 seconds and moved him to second on the Tonbridge AC all-time 1500 metres rankings behind James West’s 3.34.07. The time ranks Higgins 9th on the UK rankings for 2026 and is the 38th fastest time ever by a Brit.
At two separate meetings Tom Daly improved both his 400m and 200m times to 47.71 and 21.95, in the under 20 age group. Both would have been Tonbridge age group records but for Lucas Cameron who has run quicker this year over 400m and nudged ahead of Daly in this 200m at Gillingham in 21.93. Both were inside Anton Bachorski’s previous club under 20 men’s record of 22.05.