Kent club clinch thrilling win after overhauling Highgate Harriers in the closing stages on Sunday at Sutton Park

It wasn’t one of the fastest men’s races in history but it was certainly one of the most exciting with just 13 seconds separating the top two teams.

Tonbridge were the winners despite only taking the lead deep into the final kilometre and having only been 23rd at the end of leg one.

It was a victory for patience and consistency for the Tonbridge squad who had the most well balanced squad of runners. They had only one of the fastest 16 short and long legs, but still left Sutton Park with gold medals.

Corey De’ath led them on the opening long leg and his 26:56 left them around 400 metres down on leg winner Jacob Allen of Highgate, who sprinted to an early lead up the hill toward the finish of the stage with a 25:42 clocking ahead of Bedford’s Jack Goodwin (25:44).

Nathan Marsh’s 15:28 short leg advanced Tonbridge up 13 places to 10th as, up ahead, former European under-18 3000m champion Thomas Keen blasted a 15:10 to take Cambridge and Coleridge ahead as he ran the day’s best short leg.

Tonbridge continued their rise with Jamie Goodge (26:49) moving to seventh, Michael Ellis (15:43) to fifth and then Ben Cole (26:29) up in a medal position at the end of leg five.

Start of the men’s 12-stage at the English National Relays at Sutton Park pic.twitter.com/K863Vg8DsP

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 9, 2022

Miles Weatherseed (15:52), Steve Strange (26:49) and Jamie Bryant (15:42) kept them in the medal hunt but at the end of leg eight they were well over two minutes back on a rampant Highgate and victory looked beyond them.

However a 26:10 from Kieran Reilly followed by a 15:41 from Cameron Payas and then an excellent 25:53 from Jamie Kingston brought them within a minute of leaders Highgate.

Ben Murphy soon closed the gap and his 15:39 powered him on to the lead as they gained their second ever victory following their 2018 success with a time four minutes quicker here with a 4:13:11.

Highgate (4:13:24), who won back in 2016, were a close second and, for them, Alex Lepretre (25:25) and Pete Chambers (15:31) produced particularly impressive runs.

Bedford (4:14:25) ensured a Southern medal sweep, while Bristol and West (4:14:25) proved the best of the rest in fourth.

Leeds City were unlucky to miss a medal despite missing many of their star names. Their opening leg runner suffered an asthma attack and they were back in 49th at the start of the second stage and did well to make the top five with 4:16:47.

Hercules Wimbledon (4:17:00), Swansea (4:19:08) – for whom Dewi Griffiths went from 19th to 9th on leg five with a 26:03 – Southampton (4:19:23) – missing the Mahamed brothers but boosted by Alex Teuten’s 25:58 seventh leg, Salford (4:20:45) and Central AC (4:20:55) completed the top 10.

The latter came through well after being 27th after leg two and were missing their big names Andy Butchart and Jamie Crowe, who were among a number of internationals in the programme who did not compete.

Results were available soon after the race but were in need of some amendment. A time of 1:34 was showing as fastest short leg, for example, although it is believed former National junior champion and 13:27 road 5km performer Nick Goolab was fastest.

The Belgrave Harrier’s 25:23 which moved him from 18th to third on leg three looks to be the quickest just ahead of Lepretre’s time on the long legs.

There were also some poorly attended young athletes 5km races which nevertheless saw impressive individual wins for Joshua Blevins (15:31) and Emilia Platt (18:01) at under-17 level and Jacob Nugent (16:44) and Milly Dunger (17:59) in the under-15 age group.

Jacob Nugent and Milly Dunger win the under-15 titles at Sutton Park pic.twitter.com/nzuRT62cRq

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 9, 2022