Kent clubs take the honours at the South of England Road Relays at Milton Keynes on Sunday

Although two Kent clubs – Cambridge Harriers and Tonbridge AC – dominated the South of England Road Relays at Milton Keynes on Sunday (March 28), there is a vast difference to their back story over recent years.

Tonbridge’s men, under the guidance of Mark Hookway, have firmly built up a reputation over recent years of being one of the top distance running clubs in Britain with continual successes in English National and regional events and here they carried on their good form with a strong second half to overhaul early leaders Highgate.

It is only in recent years that Tonbridge have become a major force but Cambridge’s women were once the best female club in the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s thanks to the likes of Olympians Joan Allison and Margaret Coomber and national track and road champion Glynis Penny but they haven’t even entered this event in the last few decades.

However, helped by the guidance of team manager and coach Penny with a good mixture of young athletes and promising triathletes they have suddenly improved their depth and here they turned out in full force for the first time this century.

A solid start from Kent League overall winner Megan Marchant (17:08) put Cambridge fourth on the opening short leg (5km) as Bedford’s English National under-20 14th-placer Tia Wilson impressed with a 16:18 which would prove to be comfortably the day’s fastest.

Cambridge’s second leg runner Kate Curran soon powered into the lead with a 29:47 clocking for the long leg over 8.6km. The former international triathlon medallist had been eighth in the Southerns in her one 2022 cross-country race but the week before the relay had run a 1:21:14 half-marathon at the end of a half Ironman competition in Lanzarote!

Coming up from 11th to second on leg two was Lewes’ South of England under-20 champion Harriet Bloor who ran the fastest of 29:23.

Emily Proto carried on Lewes’ momentum and temporarily went into the lead on the short third leg with a 18:12 but Cambridge’s Natasha Sinha got back ahead on the finish on the track and at halfway they led by a second on 65:23.

Norwich (66:29) were up to third after CAU Inter-Counties under-20 fourth-placer (and BUCS 6km winner) Megan Gadsby ran the quickest leg of 17:26.

Multi champions in this event Aldershot were just behind in fourth (66:33).

Cambridge still had two of their strongest runners to come and Holly Dixon, the Inter-Counties senior sixth placer quickly increased her lead and at the end of her 29:23 leg which temporarily equalled the day’s fastest long leg.

The gap was now two minutes with English Championships 1500m bronze medallist Lily Coward (30:15) moving Aldershot into second with Lewes third.

Belgrave moved up from eighth to fourth with Sarah Astin, the week after a 33:17 10km PB going fastest overall with a 29:05 clocking.

On the fifth leg, Caroline Ford, a 2:06.48 800m performer, had not raced since 2020 according to her Power of 10 profile but she showed no signs of rustiness as she powered to the fastest on her leg of 17:19 and the lead was now up to two minutes 44 seconds.

Olivia Papaioannou moved Belgrave (1:54:49) into second with a 17:32 leg while Lewes (1:55:46) went back Aldershot (1:56:22) as the other medal places still seemed up for grabs.

On the last leg, Cambridge had no worries with former multiple National age group champion Sabrina Sinha in action and the BUCS Indoor 1500m champion who ran a leg in Britain’s winning team in the World Students Cross-Country recently, ran the quickest final leg of 16:51 as the margin stretched to just 10 seconds short of four minutes.

Belgrave held on to second with Aldershot’s Inter-Counties under-20 champion Pippa Roessler’s 17:05 leg denying Lewes as the Sussex team produced their best performance to date at this level.

Southampton, hosts Marshall Milton Keynes, Basingstoke, Belgrave B, London Heathside and Cambridge and Coleridge completed the top ten.

Kent AC would have been in the battle for a top 10 place but their fourth runner Jennifer Berg was sent round the long leg loop twice and took over 50 minutes for her leg.

Tonbridge did not dominate the men’s race to the same extent as Cambridge as they ran out to a 52-second win.

Always in the top three but with none of any of the fastest times on each leg, they bided their time in the early stages as Alex Howard (25:39) came in third as Winchester’s Toby Cooke, who ran a 29:21 earlier in the month at Trafford, led the way with a 25:26 from Highgate’s Alex Lepretre’s 25:31.

Thomas Keen, the 2018 European under-18 3000m champion, who improved his 800m PB to 1:47.97 last summer, showed his endurance is also progressing as his 14:41 was the quickest short leg of the day and brought Cambridge & Coleridge into the lead as Ben Murphy (14:51) took Tonbridge into second.

South of Thames cross-country champion Jamie Goodge (26:27) kept Tonbridge in second on leg three but Highgate’s 13:43.75 5000m performer Jacob Allen (25:40) went ahead though even faster was former English National junior champion Ellis Cross (25:25) who moved Aldershot up to third.

On leg four Highgate, through London champion Seyed Taha Ghafari (15:12), marginally increased their lead over Tonbridge’s Mike Ellis (15:18) to 42 seconds with Cambridge & Coleridge again supplying the fastest leg through English Schools runner-up Alex Melloy (14:56) who moved them back up to third.

Highgate stayed ahead on leg five through VPH 5 runner-up Alex Bampton (26:26) who stretched the gap to exactly a minute to Tonbridge’s Ben Cole (26:44).

Further back the South of England champion Alex Coley-Maud moved Guildford into the top 10 with a 25:39 which was probably the fastest leg as the results suggests Bournemouth were faster but appear to have done a short leg with a 18:00 clocking which advanced them from 31st to sixth!

At halfway Highgate (2:03:12) still had a substantial lead through Sean Renfer (15:13) over Tonbridge (2:04:23) through Jamie Bryant (15:24) with Cambridge & Coleridge (2:05:02) back up to third with again the fastest leg of 15:00 thanks to English Schools steeplechase champion Tom Bridger.

Roger Poolman (27:22) kept Highgate ahead on leg seven but Tonbridge’s Southern 1500m runner-up Steve Strange (26:38) closed the gap to around half a minute.

Thereafter, as at Sunday night the results and details of fastest legs are unreliable. For example Belgrave’s Dan Wallis taking all of five seconds for his eighth leg going into the lead and then Nick Goolab who looked to be moving fast given a 42:13 on leg nine!

What actually happened is that Highgate’s Pete Chambers (15:16) got closed down further by Tonbridge’s Cameron Payas (15:01) and now the margin was just 12 seconds though there was a big gap to Bedford in third.

Finally on leg nine, Tonbridge hit the front as Southern under-20 runner-up Jamie Kingston (25:56) went ahead and stretched the lead to 49 seconds over Highgate.

Bedford’s South of England runner-up Ben Alcock (25:31) made significant in roads in third and they now had Highgate within their sights.

Dan Bradley (15:42) kept Tonbridge ahead on leg 10 but the lead was down to 31 seconds as Bedford’s Matt Bray (15:05) was fastest and moved past Highgate.

Corey De’ath (27:10) held Tonbridge’s advantage to over half a minute on leg eleven though Charlie Haywood’s 26:48 got Highgate back past Bedford in second.

On the final leg, former National youth 800m record-holder Sean Molloy ran an assured 15:03 to move the lead back to 52 seconds as Highgate (4:10:52) were a clear second over Bedford (4:11:58).

Hercules Wimbledon (4:13:47), Cambridge & Coleridge (4:14:39), Aldershot (4:15:27), Southampton (4:17:39), Victoria Park (4:19:19), Winchester (4:21:40) and Woodford Green (4:23:17) completed the top 10.

Olympic 800m semi-finalist Daniel Rowden (16:03) ran the final leg for the latter.

The event also hosted the South of England 5km Championships for younger age groups.

The 3:53.70 1500m performer Isaac Rothwell (15:16) narrowly got the better of his Cambridge & Coleridge team-mate George Keen (15:19) in the under-17 men’s race while Alex Mulvhill (16:53) was a clear winner of the under-15 boys race.

Jemima Ridley easily won the under-17 women’s race in 17:55 but much quicker in the under-15 girls race was Inter-Counties sixth-placer Milly Dunger (17:33).