Molloy takes Southern indoors 800 metres title
Tonbridge Athletic Club members stepped onto the international and national stage at the weekend, with a host of excellent performances, both at home and abroad.
Sean Molloy captured the South of England men’s indoor 800 metres title, heading club mate Ben Murphy, as they ran 1.51.93 and 1.53.26, in the final, for an excellent one-two result. It was a return to form for Molloy, after a couple of disappointing races. Charlie Crick was upgraded to the bronze medal position in the under 20 men’s, 800 metres, after another athlete’s disqualification and having run an indoor best of 1.56.41 in his heat.
Both Lewis Collins and Jack Lennard reached the men’s 200 metres final, finishing fourth and fifth in 22.63 and 22.92, respectively, although Lennard had run 22.74 in his semi final. Asha Root finished fourth in the under 20 women’s 400 metres final in 58.92.
The highest placed field eventer was Folarin Babalola, who was seventh in the under 20 men’s Long Jump with 6.36 metres.
Lucy Reid and Kieran Reilly both represented England teams on Sunday, both finishing as runners-up in their events. Reid ran 73.59 at the Granollers half Marathon, near Barcelona, which was only twelve seconds away from her personal best. Reilly raced indoors over 1500 metres, at the Reykjavik Games in Iceland, recording 3.49.45.
In the USA James West was in record breaking action on Friday and Saturday, at Arkansas, where he was racing for Oregon University. On Friday evening he ran the opening 1200m leg of the Distance Medley Relay in 2.53.53, where the team set a new National collegiate record. Then on Saturday he returned to win the individual 800 metres with an indoor personal best of 1.49.69, which broke his own Tonbridge AC men’s indoor record.
At Seattle, on Saturday, both Chris Olley and George Duggan raced over 3000 metres, setting personal bests. Olley ran 7.56.34 to finish fifth in the invitational race, whilst Duggan won his race in 8.06.52. The results place them third and eleventh on the current UK rankings.
At the Chichester 10km road race on Sunday Alan Buckle set a new Tonbridge AC over 60 men’s record of 39.31, whilst Nathan Chapman was the first of the club members home with a pb of 32.58. Becky Morrish was first of the Tonbridge women in 37.58, not too far away from her best. Further north Dom Brown finished twelfth in a high class Alsager five mile road race in 24.56.