Sevenoaks AC

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SAC at KFL Swanley 2025

The first race of the 2025/26 Kent Fitness League took place in Swanley Park on Sunday November 9th, writes Jim Knight. A record 665 runners, including 37 from Sevenoaks AC, lined up for the start at 11 a.m. We stood on the start line for two minutes in silence to contemplate the horrors of war and pay our respects to those who fought for our freedom. Then the whistle blew, and the race started. 

Three laps of the park – undulating, and grassy - a fast 5.5-mile course. Great condition – beautiful bright sunshine, a cool breeze and quite dry underfoot. 

30 minutes later, 29-year-old Kieran Hughes from Dartford Harriers crossed the line to win by 22 seconds from David Adams from Petts Wood Runners. Just 15 seconds later, 32-year-old Liam McLaughlin from Sevenoaks AC had an outstanding run to finish in 8th place. He was followed by Jake Mears (21st), Guillaume Nineven (24th), and Andrew Hutchinson (50th).

The other scorers in the men’s team were Keith Dowson (51st and 2nd M60), Harvey Taylor (62nd), William Palmer (65th), and Dan Witt (102nd). Other notable performances were Neil Colvin 2nd M65 on his debut, and Jeremy Winter (4th M70). This placed the men’s team 3rd, behind Petts Wood Runners and Thanet Road Runners – the same position as last year in this race. 

The Sevenoaks women also had a great start to the season, coming 3rd behind strong teams from Canterbury Harriers and Petts Wood Runners. Team Captain, Caroline Fenwick had a great run to finish in 13th place (2nd W45), just ahead of Nicola Glover (15th and 3rd W35). The other scorers in the SAC women’s team were Pippa Whewell (31st), Sophie Day (37th) and Heather Fitzmaurice (50th). Jane Wiley ran well to place 2nd W65 on her debut.

With both the men’s and women’s team placed 3rd in their categories, the combined team came 2nd overall. The full SAC resuls were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Bib	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Score	Rtg	#
8	8	785	Liam McLaughlin	32	30:47	Sevenoaks AC	M1	98.38	Debut
21	21	1075	Jake Mears	21	31:57	Sevenoaks AC	M2	95.38	5
24	24	788	Guillaume Nineven	40	32:05	Sevenoaks AC	V40:1	94.69	20
50	50	775	Andrew Hutchinson	46	33:54	Sevenoaks AC	V40:2	88.68	28
51	51	764	Keith Dowson	62	33:56	Sevenoaks AC	V60	88.45	24
62	62	795	Harvey Taylor	21	34:26	Sevenoaks AC	M3	85.91	18
67	65	790	William Palmer	53	34:39	Sevenoaks AC	V50:1	85.22	13
89	84	763	Christopher Dick	34	35:38	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	80.83	Debut
105	99	1065	Shaun Mullen	49	36:07	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	77.37	15
108	102	801	Daniel Witt	50	36:11	Sevenoaks AC	V50:2	76.67	79
128	13	768	Caroline Fenwick	47	37:00	Sevenoaks AC	V45	94.83	14
140	15	771	Nicola Glover	37	37:17	Sevenoaks AC	V35	93.97	22
169	146	761	Neil Colvin	69	38:20	Sevenoaks AC	NS	66.51	Debut
170	147	757	Adam Bates	42	38:22	Sevenoaks AC	NS	66.28	13
175	151	752	Brian Allen	53	38:32	Sevenoaks AC	NS	65.36	12
181	157	1074	Jonathan Marsh	65	38:46	Sevenoaks AC	NS	63.97	15
182	158	1064	David Lobley	60	38:48	Sevenoaks AC	NS	63.74	27
185	161	777	David Killpack	40	38:58	Sevenoaks AC	NS	63.05	16
205	31	1036	Pippa Whewell	26	39:30	Sevenoaks AC	F1	87.07	Debut
206	175	772	Rob Hadden	57	39:31	Sevenoaks AC	NS	59.82	4
215	184	756	James Baker	60	39:41	Sevenoaks AC	NS	57.74	34
234	37	762	Sophie Day	37	40:28	Sevenoaks AC	F2	84.48	5
238	199	780	Leonard Lai King	46	40:42	Sevenoaks AC	NS	54.27	22
250	40	769	Heather Fitzmaurice	55	40:59	Sevenoaks AC	V55	83.19	85
256	213	754	Andrew Ashlee	56	41:06	Sevenoaks AC	NS	51.04	34
303	255	766	Andrew Evans	55	42:48	Sevenoaks AC	NS	41.34	61
315	262	784	Simon Mann	45	43:07	Sevenoaks AC	NS	39.72	6
346	64	792	Sarah Philpott	47	43:52	Sevenoaks AC	NS	72.84	8
357	290	800	Jeremy Winter	71	44:20	Sevenoaks AC	NS	33.26	16
362	69	799	Rosie Williams	56	44:25	Sevenoaks AC	NS	70.69	4
411	318	791	Rob Peers	60	46:01	Sevenoaks AC	NS	26.79	24
444	105	753	Clare Ambrose	57	47:17	Sevenoaks AC	NS	55.17	5
455	110	798	Jane Wiley	67	47:45	Sevenoaks AC	NS	53.02	Debut
506	135	793	Sarah Shewell	66	49:27	Sevenoaks AC	NS	42.24	133
560	397	778	Jim Knight	74	52:12	Sevenoaks AC	NS	8.55	8
629	421	794	Lionel Stielow	76	1:00:01	Sevenoaks AC	NS	3.00	30

The full results are here.

A big thank-you to our world Champion double-decathlete Oloff van Zyl who offered his sports massage services to SAC members before and after the race.

The Kent Fitness League is a series of cross-country races between the 18 registered Athletics Clubs in Kent. Any number of club members can compete, but 13 are needed to score in the team competition – 8 men (of whom two must be V40 and two V50 and one V60) and 5 women (of whom one must be V35 and one V45 and one V55). The next race is on Sunday Nov 23rd in Oxleas Woods, Eltham.

SAC at KXCL 2025-26 Somerhill

Six senior SAC members contested the second race of the Kent XC League 2025-26 on 18 October in mild, dry conditions.

Yon Marsh was the standout SAC performer as first M65 in the 8K event, while Oloff Van Zyl was narrowly edged to third M55. However, both runners lead their respective age categories after two races. The full Sevenoaks results were:

SW
55 1394 Anna O'Donovan Sevenoaks AC 40:04 SW
M50
12 1240 Oloff Van Zyl (M55) Sevenoaks AC 32:24 (3rd M55)
29 1241 Daniel Witt (M50) Sevenoaks AC 35:59
M60
14 1238 Yon Marsh (M65) Sevenoaks AC 37:54 (1st M65)
M70
5 502 Simon Hallpike (M70) Sevenoaks AC 27:38
10 503 Jim Knight (M70) Sevenoaks AC  31:35

The full results are here.

This brings the KXCL series to the halfway stage with no mud! The next fixture, except for senior under-65 women, is at Danson Park on 15th November.

Keith Dominates on the Roads

Keith Dowson completed an emphatic defence of his Kent Road Race Grand Prix M60 title with age-group victory in the Ashford 10k on 12 October.

Keith's win was his sixth in the series, giving him the maximum possible 60 points.

The race was also the Kent Short Course Championship, so Keith secured all three county road titles, having won the Long Course equivalent at the Dartford Half in March.

And to put a further gloss on Keith's performance, his time in 49th place overall of 37:49 was a new M60 10k club record!

The full results from Ashford are here.

With the dust now settled on the 2025 Kent GP, of the 44 affiliated Kent clubs, SAC's women were 14th and men 17th in the team competition. Scorers for the women were Heather Fitzmaurice (40th), Nicolene Hanekom (64th), Sophie Day (84th), Silvia Forcat (174th) and Sam Znetyniak (202nd), and for the men, Keith (14th), Simon Hallpike (84th), Jake Mears (115th), Dan Witt (280th), Leonard Lai King (451st), Chris Desmond (474th), Neil Colvin (484th) and Jon Copping (528th).

Heather was also 5th W55, while Simon, as 2nd M70, joins Keith as a medallist this year.

The first three Kent GP races of 2026 will be the Canterbury 10 on January 25th, where the 2025 awards will be made, the Deal Half on February 15th and the Paddock Wood Half on March 8th. These are in the calendar here.

The full KGP results and information is here.