Photo – TAC men James Kingston, Ted Higgins, Ben Cole, Jamie Macdonald, Jake Brislane, Alex Howard
The Tonbridge Athletic Club men’s team won the English National Cross Country Championships, which were held at Sedgefield, County Durham, on Saturday, heading teams from 68 clubs.
Bristol and West AC were the strong favourites, having dominated the competition a year ago and returned with five of their six scorers from then, plus other strong runners, determined to defend their title. Certainly, after one of the three laps had been completed, it looked like Bristol might take the win once again, as they led with 130 points to Tonbridge on 190. However, there was a significant shift in momentum on the second lap of the 12 kilometres long race. The six Tonbridge scorers had moved forward, led by James Kingston, who was having a race long battle with Hugo Milner from Derby, at the front.
Milner managed to shake off a persistent Kingston, who felt this was the best race of this life, despite winning the championship in 2023. Milner won by 14 seconds in 37.07, whilst the defending champion, Richard Slade was 49 seconds back from Kingston, with another previous champion, Calum Johnson, from Gateshead 4th.
Tee Higgins, just a week after winning a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the UK Indoors Championships, had a phenomenal race, moving from 12th after one lap to 5th at the finish. The remaining four Tonbridge scorers all had similarly well-paced races, with Alex Howard 16th, Jamie Macdonald 30th, Jake Brislane 33rd and Ben Cole 38th. This gave Tonbridge 124 points to win from Bristol on 159, with three Northern teams following, as Salford, Leeds and Newark made up the top five.
The under 20 men’s team were the only other medal winners for Tonbridge, as they finished second to Aldershot. Harrison Fraser (9th) and Tom Claridge (10th) produced maybe their best races of the season, with Toby Bawtree (32nd) and Max Malkinson (41st) completing the scorers.
Tonbridge had 109 runners competing across the ten events, with all of them finishing. The senior women’s team were 7th, with the scorers being Charlotte Alexander (27th), Anna Sharp (60th), Amelia Beeston (69th) and Anna Palmer (138th).
The under 17 men finished 5th, with their leading runner being Will Bachelor in 50th. The under 15 boys were 6th, with Guy Bowers the leading individual in 23rd. Isabel Gowing in 43rd led the under 17 women home to 9th place, whilst Emily Boyd in 54th led home the under 20 women, who finished as 8th team. Aimee Watts placed a fine 32nd, as she led home the under 15 girls to an 11th placed finish.
On Sunday, Lucy Reid returned to racing action, after a year long recovery from knee surgery, to win the women’s race, at the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon. Reid ran 74.41, which placed her third overall in the race, recording the same time as the men’s runner-up.
There were also some Tonbridge AC veterans competing at the British Masters Athletics Federation Championships, at Lee Valley. Diane Wright set a club w55 record in the 60 metres heats of 8.98. Results link here – https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2026/GBR/bmaf-itfc/
Above – under 20 men. Max Malkinson, Tom Claridge, Harrison Fraser, Toby Bawtree