Photo – The under 20 men’s team at Beckenham (Isaac Arnott, Tom Claridge, Ben Pearce, Matthew Dubery)
James Kingston, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, won the men’s race at the South of England Cross Country Championships, on Saturday, whilst the club’s under 20 men’s team won silver medals.
It was the third consecutive year that the championships had been held at Beckenham Place Park, with the men’s race, over nine miles, consisting of a small lap, plus two large ones. A small group established themselves at the front of the eight hundred-strong field, until towards the start of the final lap, where Kingston made his move. With a lap to go he had a six second lead, but continued to apply the pressure, eventually winning in 42.50 and 26 seconds clear of Alex Leprétre, from Highgate Harriers.
Ben Cole had a terrific race to finish 5th, with Cameron Chambers in 23rd improving by 22 places from last year. The scoring team was completed by Michael Ellis (60th), Ted Higgins (87th) and Ross Thomas (110th), as they finished 4th of the 45 clubs.
The under 20 men finished second to Aldershot in their championship, led home by Matthew Dubery in 12th, who gained about ten places in the second half of the eight kilometres. He was just ahead of Tom Claridge (13th), with Ben Pearce finishing 25th and Isaac Arnott 31st.
Unfortunately, many of the other Tonbridge teams were affected by absentees, due to illness. The under 17 men were 5th through Jacob Hunt (23rd), Connor Prendergast (26th), Toby Bawtree (28th) and Harrison Fraser (44th). James Petrie had one of his best races to finish 15th and lead the under 15 boys’ team home, with Charlie Warren (30th), William Bachelor (44th) and Oscar Graffin (47th) all scoring.
The only other completed team was by the senior women, who finished 21st and had to rely on all four scorers from the over 50 age group, headed by Maria Heslop in 67th.
Some from the under 17 age group competed at Lee Valley, over the weekend, in the London Indoor Games. Amongst the highlights were a High Jump clearance of 1.69 metres by Ella Thomas, which is the best performance in the UK so far this year. Elsa Pawson moved to the current 4th spot on the UK age group rankings with a 3.24 clearance in the Pole Vault, which was also a personal best.
In the USA, at Clemson, South Carolina, Charlie Crick finished 4th over 800 metres, in 1.49.82, which currently puts him 6th on the UK indoor rankings. Chris Olley ran 4.03.14 for the mile, at Washington.
On the roads, Lucy Reid had an excellent run in the Seville Half Marathon, in Spain, where she finished 6th in 70.30, just one second outside her personal best. In the same race, Helen Gaunt ran a big personal best of 75.41 to set a Tonbridge AC over 40 age group record.
Ben Murphy recorded 14.53, at The Leas, Minster parkrun, on Saturday, which improved the course record by over a minute.