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Tom Collins of Medway and Maidstone AC dominated a 300-strong field to win the Thanet 20 and Kent 20-mile championships at Ramsgate on Sunday.
Collins (pictured) shrugged off the challenge of Dan Watt (Tunbridge Wells Harriers) to win by four minutes in 1hr53min36sec, an improvement of 65 seconds over his previous best set when finishing second at this race last year.
Watt won the Deal half-marathon in February and made an impressive debut over 20 miles (1:57:46) to claim the Kent silver medal. He was in touch for the first five miles out to Broadstairs but by half distance the race was over as a contest.
The women’s race featured a dominant performance from Sharon Hawkins (Maidstone Harriers, 2:21:51), to move to second on the UK W45 rankings. Hawkins also took the W45 Kent gold medal.
Faye Roberts (Canterbury Harriers, 2:24:19) was the silver medallist and Sally Kyle (Dartford Road Runners, 2:27:37) took Kent bronze and W35 gold.
W35 Sarah Gruber (Sittingbourne Striders, 2:27:58) was fourth overall from Chloe Hammond (Bexley, 2:29:32) and W45 Julie Stoppani (Maidstone Harriers, 2:34:05). Penny Birchall (Canterbury Harriers, 2:49:54) was the leading W55 athlete.