SCVAC T&F 2023 - Match 6, Dartford
The final meeting for the current season in the Kent SCVAC masters athletics league took place on Friday 28 July at Dartford, writes Geoffrey Kitchener. Our women’s team consisted of Rebecca Pickard; the men’s comprised Gary Walsh, Oloff Van Zyl, Sham Pickard and Geoffrey Kitchener.
Track events began with 800m and two superb wins for Sevenoaks. Rebecca took immediate control of her W35A race as front runner and, although still being tracked at the bell, pulled away from the nearest competitor from 600m and finished three seconds ahead in 2:42.3. Oloff in the M50 race also went out first, had a commanding lead by 300m and built on this for a ten second lead at the finish in 2:20.0. Both races showed considerable confidence on the part of the winners. Gary consolidated with a fifth place in the M35A 800m, a PB against much younger runners.
Proceedings were interrupted by an accident at the 100m starting area and eventually resumed by transferring the 100m races to the back straight. Rebecca achieved second place in the W35 race with 16.2 seconds. Oloff followed up with another win in the M50 race, this in 13.8 seconds, and Gary and Geoffrey took on the M35A and M60 races respectively, with times of 16.2 and 16.0 seconds.
The field events we were able to fill were the M50 discus (Oloff was third, with 24.57m) and the M60 long jump (Geoffrey).
The meeting was to close with the 4 x 200m, a rarely run distance, and our men’s team was geared up with hopes of a club M50 best performance which came adrift when Sham came down in the third leg with agonising cramp in both legs which made further progress impossible. We were greatly relieved that, after first aid attention, it appeared that no long-term damage had been sustained.
Overall the men’s team scored 25 points, of which 16 were attributable to Oloff, and our position in the overall series for division 2 was maintained as fifth, much as had been expected. Rebecca has been our sole women’s representative for the whole series and placed our women’s ‘team’ also as fifth, a result which could not be taken for granted and required a win over Swanley/Eynsford in this match, which she achieved.
Despite the relay, there was general satisfaction amongst the Sevenoaks AC competitors that we had given fully committed performances, with a resolution next season to begin early training on the more technical events so as to cover a wider range. The results are on power of ten website here.
The next events for Kent over-35 athletes are the Kent Masters Championships on 10th September (jumps, at Ashford) and 16/17 September (all other events, at Gillingham). Entry details are at here and anyone wanting to enter does so as an individual, clubs do not send in teams. Competition is in ten-year age categories. Entries close on 24 August. If you want to see what sort of numbers of competitors and levels of performance may be expected, the 2022 results are viewable here and here (jumps).
Sevenoaks 7 - Sunday 9th July 2023
Now in its thirtieth year, the 2023 edition of the Sevenoaks 7 took place on Sunday 9th July. There was also a 2.5k Junior race for 9 to 15 year-olds. Main race results are here; junior race results here; photos here; S7 results past and present here.
Holly Diprose wins Kent Schools
Sevenoaks AC athlete, Holly Diprose, won the U16 Girls 1500m Kent Schools County Champs, at Medway Park, Gillingham on June 10th, writes Darrell Smith.
Bringing together the best young athletes in the County, this event is one of the highlights of Kent Athletics Season and serves as a selection race for future Kent County teams.
In hot conditions the pace was fast but even paced, setting all up for fast times. Going into the last lap, Holly was closely tracking the leader. But down the back straight she hit the front and moved away clearly to win in a time of 4.51.67 - a Personal Best and Club Record. In fact it’s faster than the Sevenoaks ACs senior women’s record!
Congratulations to Holly Diprose – County Champion. Her first individual Kent title, this represents a step forward for Holly who had placed 3rd in this event for the last two years. Her performance has earned her a run for Kent at the forthcoming Inter-Counties Match.
SCVAC T&F 2023 - Match 5, Tonbridge
The results of our over-35s athletics meeting at Tonbridge on 7th July have just gone onto the Power of 10 website (at full results), writes Gary Walsh. There were 6 team members: Rebecca Pickard, Gary Walsh, Graham Dwyer, Jon Maxim, Keith Dowson and Paul Fanti. Everyone achieved either a race win, a PB or a Club Best performance, details below!
Once again, Rebecca was the sole representative on the women’s team, her events being 400m and 3000m. She finished 1st in the W35A 400m in 70.1 seconds, a new PB and an improvement on her own W45 Club Best performance from earlier in the season. She also finished 1st in the W35A 3000m (her first ever race at the distance!), knocking more than 50 seconds off the previous W45 Club Best!
In the men's 400m Gary finished 5th in the M35A race in a new PB of 74.9 seconds, Jon finished 4th in the M35B race in a PB of 69.4 seconds, and Graham put in an outstanding performance in the M50 race to finish 1st in 65.8 seconds! The sprints took their toll, with Gary aggravating a foot injury within the first few strides and Graham tweaking a hamstring after 50m - Graham valiantly continued in the remaining events but Gary's night was over.
In the men's 3000m, Keith put in a highly impressive performance to finish 1st in the M60 race in 11:53.7!
In the field events, Jon finished 4th in the M35 Hammer with a throw of 9.31m, Graham (with a visibly tweaked hamstring) finished 5th in the M50 Triple Jump with 8.13m, and Keith finished a strong 3rd in the M50 Hammer with a new M60 Club Best throw of 16.84m, extending his PB by nearly 2m!
The meeting ended with the 4x400m relay, and once again we were able to field a team - 3 out of 3 relays so far this season! The team (Graham, Jon, Keith and Paul) finished in 5th place in 4:46.3 which beat the existing M45 Club Best by 1.5 seconds! Special thanks to Graham for bravely running with his injured hamstring and to Keith for stepping in to replace the broken Gary!
With the significant points scored, and Swanley/Eynesford once again not fielding any athletes on the night, the men's team further strengthened our 5th place in Division 2. In the women's competition, Rebecca has single-handedly put us up to 5th place in Division 2 ahead of Swanley/Eynesford!
The final meeting of the season will be at Dartford on Friday 28th July with the following events:
(6:45) 800m W, long jump M, high jump W, shot put M, discus W;
(7.25) 800m M;
(8.00) long jump W, discus M;
(8.05) 100m W;
(8.25) 100m M;
(8.45) 4x200m relay W;
(9:05) 4x200m relay M.
Geoffrey will issue a call for athletes nearer the time - it'd be great if we could get a good turnout and field relay teams yet again! (And they're all short races so you could do them all and still barely run more than a kilometre - you'll run further in the warm-up :-)
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