The first medals of the day, for the club, were possibly the most surprising, as the under 15 boys finished as third team, behind Chiltern Harriers and Cambridge. Ollie Head continued his terrific form to finish 11th, despite having another year in the age group. Harrison Fraser (19th), Daniel Jeddo (41st) and Mark Bridger (67th) scored for the team, whilst George Thomas was just one place and two seconds behind Bridger, as a non-scorer.
The biggest race of the day, both in terms of numbers and distance was the senior men, racing over nine miles. The scoring team of six runners started very strongly for Tonbridge, attacking the race and getting into good positions, amongst the seven hundred starters. However, it developed into a battle to hold onto good positions. Max Nicholls led the team home in 12th and Corey De’Ath, after a tough spell, finished strongly in 13th. Jamie Goodge battled throughout to come home in 33rd, with Steve Strange 36th and an inspired Michael Ellis in 42nd. The final scorer, for most of the race, was Stuart Brown, who had been out with an injury before Christmas, so had to battle hard over the second half of the course, eventually finishing 94th. This gave Tonbridge 230 points, just nine behind Highgate, with Southampton winning with 131.
The under 20 men’s team were perhaps closest to winning, placing three in the top ten, but with four to score and only having four runners, it came down to Adam Singleterry in 64th to complete the squad. James Kingston (photo) and Matthew Taylor had run much of the eight kilometres-long race in a breakaway group of seven runners. Kingston came home in 2nd, twelve seconds behind Harry Brodie of Bedford. Taylor finished 5th, whilst Matthew Dubery finished strongly to take 10th. This gave the team 3rd place, twelve points away from Ashford, with Windsor taking the win.
The under 17 men were unlucky not to get on to the medal podium, as their scoring four had a total of just 92 points, to place 4th, through Isaac Arnott (16th), Jamie MacDonald (19th), Josh Prendergast (25th) and George Hopkins (32nd). The under 13 girls and boys finished 12th and 13th, respectively, whilst the under 17 women were 7th. Sophie Preston had an excellent race, finishing 19th in the under 20 women’s event, as did Verity Hopkins who finished 16thand was the first senior woman home, helping the team to 10th place.
Bachorski breaks 60 metres record for second week in a row
Anton Bachorski reduced the Tonbridge AC men’s 60 metres record to 6.84, on Saturday, in Torun, Poland, which shaved another 0.04 seconds from the mark that he had set the previous weekend. In the USA, James West, ran over 3000 metres, at the Milrose Games, in New York, but was disappointed with 13th place, amongst a world-class field in 7.59.96. Anne Sophie-Bremans (under 17) ran 57.96 for 400 metres in Belgium, which was the fastest by a Tonbridge AC female indoors this year.
Joe Stone was another who improved on his own, recent record-setting performance, at the weekend. He ran 22.93 for 200 metres in the under 17 age group, at the London Indoor Games, at Lee Valley. This improved on the 23.12 clocking that he had set two weeks earlier.
Elicia Lacey got within 0.01 seconds of her Tonbridge, under 15 girls’ record for the 60 metres hurdles, when she recorded 9.19, also at the London indoor Games. She remains second on the UK rankings, for the season, so far, just 0.03 seconds away from the fastest time.