Photo – Elle Baker, Amelia Beeston and Ella King Powrie with the Kent Champs women’s 6 to score trophy
A cold and wind-swept course greeted competitors at the Kent Cross Country Championships, on Saturday, held within the grounds of Brands Hatch. James Kingston comfortably defended his senior men’s title, over 12 kilometres, making it four consecutive wins at the event. He also led the Tonbridge men to their tenth championship win in a row. Will Beeston, who is regaining full fitness after a Summer sidelined by injury, placed 4th, with James Crombie 6th. Tom Lockhart had one of is best ever performances in 8th, with Calum Laing 11th and Jordan Chambers 18th giving Tonbridge just 48 points to the 101 scored by Medway and Maidstone in second.
Although the Tonbridge women’s team were beaten by Blackheath in the three to score contest, they did win the six to score competition. Elle Baker finished 3rd, Ella King Powrie 8th, Amelia Beeston 9th, Rebecca Morton 17th, Sarah Cronin 18th and Sasha Humphries 25th.
Tonbridge had four age group team victories, coming from the under 15 girls and boys, the under 17 women, plus the under 20 men. However, after a record-breaking sequence of eighteen consecutive under 17 men’s team titles, they lost to Blackheath in that age group. Both under 13 teams and the under 20 women collected bronze medals, meaning that Tonbridge teams were on the podium in all ten championship events.
Toby Bawtree finished 2nd in the under 20 men’s race, finishing just three seconds behind the winner. Jake Greenwood (5th) and Max Malkinson (6th) had maybe their finest ever cross-country races to score and secure the team win.
Joel Graffin ran a well-judged race, but finished just one second behind the winner of the under 15 boy’s race, where Tonbridge had a record number of nineteen finishers in the squad. Guy Bowers (4th), Jamie Rogers (7th) and Jack Levett (11th) were the other scorers. Graffin’s older brother Oscar finished a fine 3rd in the under 17 men’s race, as they follow in the footsteps of their father Allen, who won the senior title in 2000.
Neve Raymond (4th), Isla Murray (7th) and Isabel Gowing (9th) combined to win the under 17 women’s team championship, whilst Purdey Hutchings (3rd), Aimee Watts (6th) and Eva Pluckrose (12th) did likewise in the under 15 girls’ event.
On, Sunday, in warmer conditions, Tonbridge had runners in the Valencia 10k road race, in Spain, which often produces fast times, due to the weather, the flat course and the quality of the field. Alex Howard was the first Tonbridge runner home with a personal best of 29.21, but such is the world class quality of the field that this gave him only 135th place. Jake Brislane ran 29.34 and Ben Cole broke another Tonbridge over 40 men’s record with a 29.41 clocking. Isaac Arnott ran 30.49 and George Marshall 32.14, which were both personal bests.
There was just one medal winning performance for Tonbridge at the South of England age group indoor championships. This came in the under 15 boys’ 800m, where Ted Vallins ran an excellent 2.07.63, which was a pb.