Photo – James West
James West, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, finished fifth in the 3000 metres final at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, at Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands, on Sunday. The race was won by the Olympic 5000 metres champion and world record holder at 3000 metres, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, who ran 7.48.37. West recorded 7.51.46, having qualified with a similar time in the heats, the day before.
The race was relatively slow for the first 1500 metres, as they passed this halfway mark in around 4.14, with the second half being run in an incredible 3.34 by Ingebrigtsen and 3.37 by West. This left West less than a second away from the bronze medal position, but puts him firmly amongst the leading track distance runners in Europe. He will now be waiting to find out whether his ranking will give him a place at the World Indoor Championships in China. Jack Higgins made his debut in a Great Britain vest, but could not progress from his 800 metres heat, in what was a high calibre event.
On Saturday, at the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, at Wollaton Park, Nottingham, James Kingston completed his season, with a fine second place finish in the senior men’s race. Kingston was the leading Kent athlete and had a race long battle with the eventual winner, Bret Rushman, of Hertfordshire. Rushman had beaten Kingston at the European Under 23 Championships, in December. The second-place performance was an improvement on Kingston’s 7th and 4th places in the previous two years. Will Beeston and Ben Cole finished 43rd and 44th. In the younger age groups the best Tonbridge result came from Toby Bawtree, who was 17th in the under 17 men’s race.
Sunday morning came with conditions like the warm and sunny day on Saturday, with the Paddock Wood Half Marathon taking place. Cole Gibbens had an outstanding run to win in 64.59, as he pulled away from Max Milarvie of Dulwich in the closing stages, to finish with a 20 seconds advantage. This improved Gibbens personal best by nearly two and a half minutes and was just six seconds away from Chris Olley’s Tonbridge AC club record. Gibbens is targeting a marathon debut in London next month. Sean Molloy improved his best by about two minutes with 69.38 to finish 7th with Ben Cole 13th in 70.39, having also raced on Saturday. The first of the Tonbridge women was Elizabeth Owen, who ran 89.13 in the over 45 age category.
Amongst other distance running performances over the weekend, was a 5000 metres debut on the track by Jamie Macdonald who clocked an excellent 14.36.78, at the University of Birmingham Open Meeting, taking advantage of the perfect Spring weather.