Tonbridge AC Evening Open Meeting, Tonbridge School (Tue. 2nd July)
There were personal bests over 800 metres for Alex Van den Berg-Hows (U15B), removing six seconds from his previous best with 2:21.69s and Celia Allen (U15G) who clocked 2:27.50s. Over 1500 metres Austin Richards (U15B) recorded 4:47.14s for a four second PB. Thomas Ellis (U17M) made his debut over 1500m with 4:47.11s.
Tonbridge AC Midsummer Relays, Penshurst Place (Wed. 3rd July)
Tonbridge AC hosted the inaugural Tonbridge AC Midsummer Relay Race on a 4km multi-terrain course through Penshurst Place’s beautiful parkland and grounds. 95 teams from 20 Kent and Sussex clubs competed. The clubs mixed team, comprising Ben Shearer (13:14), James Macdonald (14:21) and Catherine Gonzalez (15:51) finished in sixth place overall in a total time of 43:27 taking the win in the Mixed Team category. (Full results)
Tracksmith Twilight 5000m Races, Tooting Bec (Wed. 3rd July)
Chris Loudon broke the club record for the M35 5000m, recording a time of 15:16.69s.
Assembly League 5km, Sutcliffe Park, Eltham (Thur. 4th July)
The 4th of this summer's Assembly League fixtures was held at Sutcliffe Park on election night, writes Clem Dixon. A three lap variant of the parkrun course was used, it avoided having to double back round the tree but still came out at pretty much exactly 5k.
We had an impressive 19 runners at this one. Notable achievements for the club included: 2nd female for Lucy Foreman in 18:25; 4th place for Bobby Babaker in 15:42; 1st male team (Bobby, Kyle Hurst, Lewis Baker and Brett Baker beating a strong Kent AC team by a single point); 3rd U20 for Liam Carr; 3rd M40 for Mark Penny; 2nd M55 for Christian Poulton and 2nd W55 for Rose Baker.
This was our home fixture: many thanks to David Reader for organising and to all of our marshals. The next race in the series will be in Victoria Park, Hackney on 1st August.
Brecon Fans Weekend, Brecon Beacons (Sat. 6th & Sun. 7th July)
This year three of the club's fell runners made the trip to the Brecon Beacons (or "Bannau Brycheiniog" if you insist) for the "Fans" races (by the way the Welsh word fan means peak and is pronounced van), reports Clem Dixon.
After a number of years of holding the long race on Saturday, this year we were back to the short, sharp Pen y Fan race being the first of the two. A heavy downpour eased just in time for the start and we were off into the mist. A clear path takes you to an obelisk on the main ridge which you then follow over the top of Corn Du (pronunciation corn dee), down to a col, then it is up again to Pen y Fan itself. Now the fun starts; straight down the side of the hill, no paths here and plenty of debate about the best line to take. Christian Poulton had over four minutes on James Floyd at the summit but lost three of them on the descent even though Christian was running it for the fifth time and James the first. Beginners luck? Or was it James's homework with a map noting down compass bearings?
There was better weather for Sunday's race, another horseshoe run from the village of Llanfrynach (I am not going to try to tell you how to pronounce that!), up to the ridge, along it over a couple of peaks and back down by a different route, this year run in a clockwise direction which made a nice change for those of us that come every year.
We came away with many memories, with a complimentary beer each from each race, and with a bottle of wine each for being first male team in the second race. If my words don't tempt you to give races like this a go, James ran it with a chest camera, check out his short highlight video.
Pen y Fan: 21 Christian Poulton 55:14; 24 James Floyd 56:12; 38 Clem Dixon 67:03.
Fan y Big: 14 Christian Poulton 1:37:10; 25 James Floyd 1:52:12; 43 Clem Dixon 2:11:50.
Medway & Maidstone Summer Open, Gillingham (Sun. 7th July)
Personal bests over 800m (2:31.18s) and long jump (3.38m) for Seren Yeatman (U13G).
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