Photo – under 15 boys team of Toby Bawtree , Ollie Head and Connor Prendergast
Tonbridge Athletic Club’s under 15 boys’ team won a dramatic National Cross Country Relay Championship, on Saturday, at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield. A total of 95 teams started the race, as teams of three runners competed over the two kilometres long course, which undulated over parkland and woodland.
Ollie Head ran the first leg for the team and was soon towards the front of the race, forcing the pace along. The England schools’ international ran strongly, recording 6.26, on the slightly shorter first leg, to give Tonbridge the lead and handed over to Connor Prendergast. Prendergast maintained the Tonbridge advantage, as he ran 6.41, handing Toby Bawtree the lead by a few metres from Bromsgrove and Redditch. Before the halfway mark Bawtree had lost the lead, whilst Salford were also closing the gap to the two teams ahead. However, Bawtree had judged his effort to perfection and with 800 metres to go was pushing on and building a lead. He ran strongly to the finish, timed at 6.40 to give the team a seven second victory, the club’s first in this race for nine years.
The Tonbridge men’s team had gone to the championships with strong hopes of finishing amongst the medals and came very close to doing so. However, the level of competition was extremely high, with some of the top teams in the country seemingly at or near full strength. Alasdair Kinloch went first for Tonbridge, finishing 16th of the 198 starters, after the opening five-kilometres leg. Kinloch recorded 15.49, which was 52 seconds from the lead and 42 seconds away from one of their main rivals, from Cambridge and Coleridge.
James Kingston went second and produced another top-class performance, recording 15.19 and moving up ten places to put Tonbridge in contention, before handing over to Kieran Reilly. Kingston’s time ended up as the third fastest of the race, over the slightly longer second, third and fourth legs. Reilly moved the team into 4th and at one stage was in a medal position, as he was timed at 15.37. He handed to James West, who was having his first race for Tonbridge for a while, since being based in the USA. West ran 15.40 and finished just ten seconds away from Cambridge, who were 2nd and five seconds from Aldershot, who hung on for the bronze medals. Leeds had pulled away on this last leg for a convincing win.
The Tonbridge under 17 men finished an excellent 5th from 81 teams in their 3 x 3 kilometres race, the team comprising of Josh Prendergast (9.28), Tom Claridge (9.29) and George Hopkins (9.20). The under 20 men ran the same course and finished 10th from 73 teams through Ed Coutts (9.07), Matthew Dubery (9.10) and Matthew Taylor (9.18).
The other Tonbridge teams in action were the under 13 boys who placed 34th, the under 17 women 29th and the under 20 women 21st.
Results here – results.sporthive.com/events/6994248835281516800
Final results will show here – www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/category/relays/results-relays/
Photos on Mark Hookway’s Facebook page and here flic.kr/s/aHBqjAe6WP