Photo – TAC men with Kent trophy (Ben Cole, James Kingston, Jack Higgins, Matthew Taylor, Cameron Chambers, Matthew Dubery)
Tonbridge Athletic Club captured the men’s team title at the Kent Cross Country Championships, on Saturday, at the course adjacent to the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit. The under 17 men also won their championship, whilst the club collected five silver medals from the other the races. Blackheath and Bromley Athletic Club were the most successful club on the day, winning five team titles, including the senior women’s competition.
The two team wins extended the Tonbridge winning sequences to eleven years in a row for the senior men and seventeen for the under 17s. However, the under 15 boys’ missed a victory for the first time in eighteen consecutive years of the championships, when placing second.
The senior men had all five scorers in the top six of their race, winning convincingly from Kent AC and a further eleven clubs. James Kingston and Ben Cole, alongside Marshall Smith, of Ashford, broke away, at the front of the field, relatively early on, with Kingston pushing the pace from around halfway through the twelve kilometres long course. Kingston had been due to represent an England team in Spain, at the weekend, but flights were cancelled, and he reverted to defending his Kent title. Kingston, Cole and Smith remained in the first three places to the finish, whilst Matthew Taylor came through strongly for Tonbridge to finish 4th. Cameron Chambers was 5th, improving one place on his position from last year, whilst Matthew Dubery in 11th completed the scoring team of six. Tonbridge also won the 12 to score competition.
The under 17 men were led home by a very good run from Harrison Fraser in 3rd, who pipped teammate Toby Bawtree to the bronze medal. Mark Bridger (7th) and Ollie Head (9th) completed the team.
Tonbridge started the day with two individual wins in the under 13 age group races, with Purdey Hutchings taking the lead in the girls’ race late on and Luca Szumilewicz front running to the boys’ win. Aimee Watts 4th and Jamie Rogers, 6th also made the top ten in the respective races.
Katie Goodge, in 7th, was the first of the club’s senior women to finish and was supported by Polly Pitcairn-Knowles (14th) and Nichola Evans (19th) to finish as second team to Blackheath, from fourteen clubs.
Tom Claridge (5th), Ed Coutts (6th) and Isaac Arnott (8th) finished runners-up to Ashford in the under 20 men’s competition whilst, in the same age group, the women’s team were 3rd, through Jess Poland (9th), Ella Ayden (10th) and Amelia Beeston (13th). Emily Geake was the first of the under 17 women home in 8th.
Both under 15 teams finished 2nd, with the three girls’ scorers being Millie Watts (7th), Aoife Foley (12th) and Neve Raymond (15th). The boys, with four to score, had Peter Fitzmaurice 4th, Ewan Prendergast 8th, William Bachelor 11thand Ben Catchpole 12th.
Above Kent Champions – Purdey Hutchings, Luca Szumilewicz, James Kingston
Above – Under 17 men win Kent Championships
Church second in National Heptathlon
Lewis Church finished second to Sam Talbot, of Sheffield, in the National Indoor Heptathlon Championships, at Sheffield, at the weekend. Church scored 5493 points, 94 points down on his own club record, but a solid performance, after missing a few weeks full training in the Autumn, through injury. However, Talbot scored 5624 points, leading for most of the competition.
Amongst his performances, Church threw an outright personal best of 14.78 metres in the Shot Put. Unfortunately, for Harry Kendall, he failed to clear his opening height in the Pole Vault and didn’t complete the competition, highlighting how challenging multi-events competition can be.
Also competing indoors, at Sheffield, Alasdair Kinloch, ran an excellent 8.03.33 for 3000 metres when finishing 9th in a top-class British Milers Club race. At Eltham, Lucy Tallon improved her season’s best in the 60 metres to 7.66 and is closing in on her own club record of 7.63.