Photo – James Kingston in the 5000m in Brussels
A group of Tonbridge Athletic Club members were amongst the two thousand competitors, who took part in the Flanders International Meeting, at Brussels in Belgium. The two-day meeting was held on Saturday and Sunday in the prestigious King Baudoin Stadium.
The 400 metres squad were the first to compete and all three produced encouraging performances. Henry Marshall ran a 47.97 personal best to crack the 48 second barrier for the first time. Lewis Collins and George Blake were in the same seeded race and recorded times of 48.67 and 48.86, respectively. It was Collins’ fastest time for six years and a personal best for Blake, by more than half a second.
Ted Higgins produced a dominant performance to win his 800 metres with a pb of 1.48.55, whilst Jordan Chambers was 7th in the same race in 1.50.54. James Kingston then finished 4th in one of the 5000 metres races, slicing more than 12 seconds from his best with 13.41.91.
At the only league meeting over the weekend, Tonbridge finished 2nd of seven teams in their division two match of the UK Youth Development League, at Tooting, on Sunday. Amongst the highlight performances was Toby Gwinnell winning three under 17 men’s events, recording a Long Jump of 6.24m, High Jump of 1.86m and a Javelin throw of 50.75m. The High Jump was a personal best by eleven centimetres. Sam Newton won the High Jump and Javelin in the under 20 men’s age group. His High Jump of 1.96 metres was a personal best.
There were also double wins from Araba Taylor in the under 17 women’s 300m hurdles and under 20 Long Jump, plus Tom Daly in the under 20 men’s 400m and Shot Put.
Other performances over the weekend included Jamie Macdonald winning the Great Exeter 10km run in 31.53, on Sunday morning. Rae Le Fay won the women’s 2000m steeplechase at the Bruce Longden hurdles and steeplechase festival, at Chelmsford, in 7.05.22. Ben Gardiner had a superb win over 800 metres at the British Milers Club Grand Prix Meeting, at Bury, near Manchester. Gardiner won in 1.47.06, which moved him to second on the Tonbridge AC all-time list and was also a qualifying time for the World University Games, to be held in Germany.
Ben Cole finished 6th in the Mid Cheshire 5km road race, on Friday evening, in 14.33, which is an impressive performance for a runner who turns 40 years old next month. Also on Friday night, but on the track at Battersea, there were some club members competing in the series of 5000m races at the Comeback 5000 event. The highlights were personal bests from Cole Gibbens, who ran 14.27.52 and Isaac Arnott with 14.48.98.
Grazia Manzotti added to her national age group records, in the 10,000 metres walk, at the British Masters Championships, near Oxford. Manzotti recorded a time of 57.04.32, which was just three seconds quicker than the old GB over 55 women’s record.
Above – Toby Gwinnell and u17 men 4x400m squad