Photo – Kirsty Ebbage
Charlie Crick and Kirsty Ebbage, of Tonbridge Athletic Club, had superb performances, at the National under 23 Championships, at the weekend, both winning silver medals. The two-day event took place in very warm conditions, at Bedford International Stadium.
Crick ran the 800 metres, qualifying from Saturday’s heats in 1.52.62, whilst Ebbage also competed on Saturday in the Discus final. Ebbage’s first throw, of six, was below par, but in round two she threw 44.38 metres, which added 20 centimetres to her personal best and the Tonbridge AC club record. Although finishing third in the competition, Ebbage had a visiting guest from Australia, one place ahead, so was the silver medal winner from the UK.
Similarly, Crick had an Australian guest, Jack Lunn, in his 800m final, who took the pace out fast on the first of two laps. Crick was closest to him early on, but was overtaken in the final 100 metres by Henry Fisher of Blackheath. Lunn won in 1.48.61, with Fisher at 1.50.08 and Crick, just outside his personal best, with 1.50.47. Asha Root qualified for the under 23 women’s 400 metres final with a heat time of 56.41 on Saturday, before finishing 7th in Sunday’s final with 56.74. Toby Emm placed 14th in the men’s 1500 metres final.
Isaac Ridge, representing the England Schools team, placed 5th in the under 17 Javelin at the Home Countries International, at Belfast, with 50.86m.
Tonbridge hosted the Southern Counties Veterans League, on Friday evening, with their women’s team winning the Division One match and their B team finishing 3rd in the Division Two match. The men’s squad placed 2nd to Dartford and are now a point behind their rivals in the league table. Individual Division One wins came in the women’s events from Angie Crush (W45 Pole Vault, 2.20m), Sally Vine (W55 Shot Put, 7.55m), Diane Bradley (W60 Shot Put, 7.04m) and Tina Oldershaw (W55 1500m, 5.43.3). The men had three wins, coming from Steve Tester (M35 400m, 54.1), Ben Reynolds (M55 1500m 4.40.0) and Dan Bradley (M35 1500m, 4.11.4). Bradley had a memorable week, as he set a Tonbridge over 35 men’s 3000m record of 8.39.62, at Wimbledon, on Wednesday and ran a parkrun on Saturday morning, before getting married later that day. Also, at Wimbledon, Verity Hopkins ran a personal best for 3000m of 9.33.19, which ranks her fourth on the Tonbridge all-time list.
On Saturday, a weakened Tonbridge team competed in the Southern Athletics League, at West London Stadium, with the only individual win from Jordan Chambers in the men’s 800 metres in 1.55.24.
Also, on Saturday, Tonbridge runners set a couple of parkrun course records. Matthew Dubery ran 16.00 on the hilly Tunbridge Wells course and Steve Strange ran 15.43 at the Squerryes Winery event, at Westerham. Julian Rendall finished 2nd, on Sunday, at the Herne Bay 10km road race in 35.08.