Photo – Alan Marriott running the 100 metres at the TAC Open Meeting, at 87 years old
Tonbridge Athletic Club hosted the first of their evening open meetings last Tuesday, held on one of the few recent days that offered reasonable conditions. The meeting attracted around 200 athletes, who competed across a limited range of events.
The first event on the track was the 100 metres, where Oli Brooke was the fastest male with 11.24 and Asha Root the fastest female, with a personal best of 12.20. One of the highlights at the meetings is Alan Marriott, who every time he runs sets a new Tonbridge record, as the club’s oldest ever competitor. On this occasion he ran the 100 metres in 26.63, at 87 years old.
In the field events, Lewis Church put down some impressive marks, which were close to his best form, with a Long Jump of 7.10m, Pole Vault at 4.55m and Shot Put of 14.60m. He and training partner Harry Kendall head off to their first Decathlon of the year, in Tenerife, this weekend. Araba Taylor was the best female Long Jumper with a pb of 5.08m. Nina Ridge celebrated recently moving into the over 50 age group by setting Tonbridge records for the Discus and Shot Put, with 25.53m and 9.54m, respectively.
There were eleven 800 metres races during the evening with the fastest Tonbridge runners being Ted Higgins with 1.53.54 and Sophie Hawkins with 2.21.96. Jamie Macdonald won the 3000 metres in 8.42.51, as he prepared for the British Universities Championships at the weekend. The evening finished with one of the best performances, as Kieran Eland ran a pb of 47.87 for 400 metres, showing that the club record of 47.74 is a realistic target for the Summer.
The Tonbridge under 13 and 15 team finished third of eight clubs in the Kent Young Athletes League fixture, at Bromley, on Sunday. There were wins for Louis Ib (u15 boys High Jump, 1.65m), Victor Watling (u13 boys 75m hurdles 12.77 and High Jump 1.40m), Seren Field (u13 girls Shot Put 7.51m and Discus 21.72m).
On the track, at the British Universities and Colleges Championships, at Manchester, there were a few Tonbridge athletes who qualified for track finals, but couldn’t get amongst the medals. Ben Gardiner (800m), Simon Coppard (1500m) and Jamie Macdonald (3000m steeplechase) all safely negotiated heats and semi-finals to qualify, with maybe the highlight being Macdonald’s pb of 9.25.36 in his heat. Samantha Stubbs finished 7th in the women’s Shot Put final, setting a Tonbridge club record of 12.03 metres.
A 70th anniversary celebration of the Roger Bannsiter’s four-minute mile took place at Oxford on Monday, with a series of mile races being held. Miles Weatherseed ran 4.05.49 in the men’s A-race, whilst Ben Pearce won the C-race in 4.14.30.
On the roads, Will Beeston won the Silverstone 10k in 32.09, on Wednesday evening, with 1300 competitors finishing behind him. Then on Monday, the Hildenborough 5 miles road race took place, where George Marshall won the men’s race in 26.12 and Nichola Evans, the women’s race in 31.00.
Above – Nichola Evans and George Marshall win the Hildenborough 5 mile road races