Photo – Jack Higgins, Kieran Eland, Henry Marshall, Ben Gardiner after setting a TAC 4x400m record
Tonbridge Athletic Club competed in the National Athletics League promotion match, at Bedford, on Saturday, needing to place in the top two of the eight clubs to gain promotion to the Premier Division.
The National Premier Division comprises of the top eight clubs in the country and at the end of the season two are relegated, whilst two from the promotion match move up. Tonbridge had qualified for this eight-club contest, after winning all three of their Championship Division South matches, earlier in the season.
In this final match of the season, the other clubs included Shaftesbury Barnet and City of Sheffield, both of whom had come down from the Premiership from last year. Whilst Shaftesbury dominated the match, scoring 593 points, there was a day-long tussle for the second promotion spot, as Tonbridge led that early on, before slipping behind Sheffield. By the end of the day Sheffield had scored 539, Tonbridge 506, Swansea 485, Cardiff 425, Trafford 381, Belgrave 378 and Havering 281.
Tonbridge had a very solid team across all of the men’s and women’s events, but A-string wins and second places were still hard to come by. There were only two individual wins, across both the track and field events, plus a superb relay win in the last event of the day.
The relay victory came in the men’s 4×400 metres, where the Tonbridge squad broke the club record, with a time of 3.14.06, taking 1.7 seconds from the previous mark. The team comprised of Henry Marshall, Jack Higgins, Ben Gardiner and Kieran Eland. Higgins had earlier won the 1500 metres in 3.54.52, in a race where Max Selby placed second in 3.56.44, to give Tonbridge maximum points.
Kirsty-Anne Ebbage seems to threaten the Tonbridge AC club records in the Discus and Hammer every time she competes and, on this occasion, won the Discus, improving her best by seven centimetres to 48.72 metres. She also placed third in the Hammer with 49.18m, not far short of her very best.
Perhaps the best female performance on the track, came from Lucy Tallon, who ran 11.83 when finishing third in the 100 metres. This broke her own Tonbridge under 20 women’s record.
Lewis Church threw the Discus 46.72m for a personal best and finished second in the 110m hurdles in 14.66, achieved despite a slight injury. Matilda Secker finished second in the women’s High Jump with 1.73m, close to her best.
The final second place, A-string performance came in the men’s 800 metres, where Ben Gardiner ran 1.53.39, whilst Jordan Chambers won a tactical B-string race convincingly.
Tonbridge will aim to get even stronger next year, after what has been their highest achieving National League performance to date.
Other
Tuesday 30th July at Bromley – Sebby Reynolds ran 300m in 37.24 to set a TAC under 15 boys record
Above – Lucy Tallon setting a TAC u20 women’s 100 metres record