Tonbridge win four team and two individual titles at Kent Championships
Tonbridge Athletic Club athletes were met by atrocious conditions, on Saturday, when competing in the Kent Cross Country Championships, at Brands Hatch. Strong winds and heavy rain continued throughout the day, giving the leading runners a lot more to think about tactically than normal. As a consequence, a number of races developed early on, with a tightly matched lead group. Tonbridge picked up eight team medals, four of which were gold, from the ten championship events. Added to these, Jamie Goodge and Lucy Reid won the senior men’s and women’s races.
The men’s race was held over 12 kilometres and for much of the first half on the race a large group ran together at the front. This was gradually reduced to just six runners, who were still together with the last of four laps remaining. Jamie Goodge made his move in the final kilometre to win by 9 seconds in 41.41, as his teammate James Kingston finished in second. Kingston held off a fast finishing defending champion Owen Hind of Kent AC. Max Nicholls (6th), Dan Bradley (7th), Ben Cole (8th) and Stuart Brown (9th) sealed a dominant win for Tonbridge, from 12 clubs, as more than 200 finished.
In contrast to the closely contested men’s event, the women’s individual race was controlled by Lucy Reid, who picked up her third Kent championship win. Soon to the fore, Reid went on to win by 93 seconds in 33.07 for the 8,350m long course. Chloe Sharp, who now runs for Woking, was second. Lucy Thompson had her most notable performance to date, finishing 4th and with Annabel Carter also running well for 7th Tonbridge won the three to score team title. Katie Goodge (9th), Imogen Amos (11th) and Claire Day (13th) sealed the additional six to score team victory.
Josh Prendergast showed his best form of the season when finishing 3rd in the under 17 men’s race, leading Tonbridge to another convincing win and supported by Isaac Arnott (5th), Jamie MacDonald (7th) and Adam Jeddo (8th). The final team win was perhaps the most surprising, as Harrison Fraser (4th) and Oliver Head (5th) spearheaded a five-point win over Medway and Maidstone, with Daniel Jeddo 11th and the improving Mark Bridger 12th. This was the sixteenth year in a row that Tonbridge had won the under 15 boys’ competition and the fifteenth for the under 17s.
Tonbridge also secured three runners-up team positions through both the under 13 boys and girls’ squads, plus the under 20 men. In the latter, Matthew Taylor had another strong performance to finish 2nd behind Jack Small of Ashford. James Petrie (4th) was the first scorer for the under 13 boys and Neve Raymond (9th) similarly for the girls. Ella Ayden had probably her best-ever race to finish 5th in the under 17 women’s race, as the Tonbridge team placed 3rd, whilst Carmen Wright (21st) was the first scorer for the 4th placed under 15 girls. In the final category, Sophie Preston finished 10th in the under 20 women’s race.
At Bexhill, also on Saturday, Nicole Taylor won the women’s race at the Sussex Cross Country Championships for the fifth successive year. Meanwhile, Steve Strange finished 2nd in the men’s race at the Essex Championships, at Basildon.
Another 1-2 finish at a National Championship for Church and Kendall
Lewis Church and Harry Kendall (photo below) once again took home gold and silver medals at a National multi-events competition, this time doing so at the England Indoor Heptathlon Championship, at Sheffield. Church ran out the winner scoring 5482 points, to win from Kendall’s 5420, after the latter led once five of the seven events had been completed.
On Saturday, Kendall ran 7.14, with Church recording 7.45 for 60 metres and then came a personal best of 7.13 metres in the Long Jump for Kendall. Church Long Jumped 6.86m, before a 14.35m Shot Put to Kendall’s 13.43m. In the final event of day one, Church was not far away from his best, clearing 2.00 metres in the High Jump to Kendall’s 1.91m. Church then scaled 4.33m in the Pole Vault, which was the penultimate event, as Kendall recorded 4.13m. Both athletes gave their all in the final event, over 1000 metres, recording personal bests, with Church at 2.43.86 and Kendall 2.44.48, the latter a best by six seconds. The final scores were that Church won with 5482 points, just nine short of his pb, against Kendall’s 5420, which added 226 points to his best-ever score.
The standout attribute from both athletes is the consistency of performance in multi-event competitions, as both will reliably get close to their personal bests across all of the events.
Samantha Stubbs finished 4th in the under 20 women’s Pentathlon, scoring 3471 points. This comprised of 9.15 for 60m hurdles, 1.55m High Jump, 10.20m Shot Put, 5.27m Long Jump and 2.26.56 for 800 metres. The hurdles, Shot Put and Long Jump were all personal bests, helping give her a total score of 3471 points.
Also at Sheffield, in the British Milers Club races, Alasdair Kinloch qualified for the UK Indoor Championships with his 8.02.32 clocking over 3000 metres, which is one of the fastest ever times by a Tonbridge athlete. Simon Coppard ran 3.51.70 in the men’s 1500 metres A-race.
Elicia Lacey broke the Tonbridge AC under 15 girls’ indoor 60 metres hurdles record, when she had two races over 60 metres hurdles, at Lee Valley, on Sunday. She recorded times of 9.41 and then 9.44, with the former breaking a 10 year-old club age group record, which had stood at 9.61. At the same meeting Kieran Eland won the 600 metres in 81.88.
