Photo – Harry Kendall who scored 7843 points for a new TAC decathlon record
At the beginning of May Tonbridge Athletic Club’s Decathlete Lewis Church scored 7773 points, in Italy, to set a new club record and beat the England Commonwealth Games Qualifying Standard by 23 points. Then, last weekend, Harry Kendall, his training partner, competed in the England Championships, at Bedford, with ambitions to achieve a similar level of performance.
With Church missing the championships, Kendall had a dream start, racing to a 100 metres time of 10.77, which was his first time under 11 seconds. He followed up with a 6.93 metres Long Jump, a little behind his best, but still a very strong performance.
Another personal best came in the Shot Put with 14.49 metres, some 47 centimetres beyond his previous mark. A High Jump clearance of 1.98 metres, was just three centimetres from his pb, before Day One was completed with the 400 metres. A 48.06 clocking took more than a second from his lifetime best, giving him a total at the halfway stage of 4158 points.
Sunday, Day Two, commenced with yet another pb in the 110 metres hurdles, recording 15.15, 0.05 seconds faster than he had run before. Kendall’s Discus Throw of 42.31 metres and Pole Vault of 4.30 metres, were good enough to keep him in the hunt for the Commonwealth Games standard, with two events to go.
Despite having had to manage a shoulder injury for a couple of weeks, the Javelin sailed out to 59.81 metres, on his first attempt of three. This improved an already strong personal best by 1.50 metres. He now needed to run somewhere around his best-ever time in the final event and his least favourite, the 1500 metres. His best time stood at 4.46.23 and Kendall set off at the required pace, before running a very strong final 400 metres lap to finish in 4.36.11.
His total score of 7843 points added a massive 542 points to his best-ever score and means that he and Lewis Church are ranked first and second on the UK rankings this year. However, Commonwealth Games selection will depend on how the selectors assess their performances, alongside those in other events, with a limit on the overall team size. The deadline for performances ends on 12th June, with selections taking place the following day, although there are various considerations involved with a total athletics team limited to 70 members.
In the USA, returning towards his best form after injury, James West finished 10th in the 1500 metres at the Eugene Diamond League, with a time of 3.38.44. West has already run inside the 3.37.00 Commonwealth Games qualifying time with 3.35.59 last year, but due the number of others achieving such marks would need to do much more to have any chance of selection.
Charlie Crick was another who bounced back from injury, having his first race of the season at the British Milers Grand Prix at Manchester. Crick won his 800 metres race, with a personal best of 1.51.37 and will be hoping to go faster in the coming weeks.
The Tonbridge under 17 and 20 squad finished 4th of the 6 teams in their match at Woodford Green, on Saturday.