team

The fifth race in the Kent Fitness League Cross Country series took place in Meopham on Sunday January 6th, on a tough 5-mile course around the paddocks and woodlands of Nurstead Court, including several obstacles, writes Jim Knight.

Running conditions were good, except for the notorious water-splash, a 10-metre long pond that competitors had to negotiate twice on the two-lap course.

With some of our fastest runners busy elsewhere, Sevenoaks AC fielded a slightly weakened team of 33 athletes, but with a strong women's team.
 
In the women's race, Cath Linney was the fastest Sevenoaks runner in 11th position, closely followed by Vanessa Gilmartin (16th), Heather Fitzmaurice (17th) and Marion Van Lille (22nd). Notable in the age categories were Bridgit Weekes (2nd W60 on the day and in the series) and Pauline Dalton (3rd W50 on the day and 2nd in the series).

The Sevenoaks women were 2nd on the day and this brought the women's team up to 3rd in the series. Petts Wood Runners had a very strong women's team and retained the top position in the series.

The SAC men's team lacked our top M50s but Guillaume Nineven led the team home in a very impressive 10th position, followed by Andrew Milne (23rd), Andrew Hutchinson (26th), Russell Crane (30th) and Ed Saunders (33rd). Dan Witt was our first M40 in 45th, and the team's M50 scorers were Jim Harness (82nd), and James Wright (85th).

The men’s team were 3rd on the day and move up to second in the series.

The combined team, lying in 2nd position after 4 races were again second on the day and retained their second place in the series. The club hopes to raise a strong team for the next race – the popular Minnis Bay race which takes place in Birchington next weekend (Sunday Jan 13th).

THe SAC results were:

Ov Pos Lg Pos Runner Age Time Club Rating # Races
10 10 Guillaume Nineven 33 31:26 Sevenoaks AC 96.88 3
23 23 Andrew Milne 36 32:46 Sevenoaks AC 92.36 20
26 26 Andrew Hutchinson 39 32:59 Sevenoaks AC 91.32 6
30 30 Russell Crane 36 33:08 Sevenoaks AC 89.93 4
33 33 Edmund Saunders 36 33:16 Sevenoaks AC 88.89 9
37 37 Mike Lochead 33 33:38 Sevenoaks AC 87.50 5
46 45 Daniel Witt 43 34:11 Sevenoaks AC 84.72 50
73 69 Jimmy George 37 35:32 Sevenoaks AC 76.39 6
80 76 Nick Humphrey-Taylor 46 35:53 Sevenoaks AC 73.96 5
87 82 Jim Harness 51 36:16 Sevenoaks AC 71.88 8
90 85 James Wright 50 36:22 Sevenoaks AC 70.83 28
100 93 James Baker 54 36:45 Sevenoaks AC 68.06 21
111 101 Jatinder Soomal 36 37:12 Sevenoaks AC 65.28 5
113 11 Cath Linney 49 37:15 Sevenoaks AC 92.91 27
123 112 Nick Holmes 43 37:47 Sevenoaks AC 61.46 4
125 114 Andy Evans 48 37:54 Sevenoaks AC 60.76 42
134 16 Vanessa Gilmartin 43 38:12 Sevenoaks AC 89.36 9
141 17 Heather Fitzmaurice 49 38:33 Sevenoaks AC 88.65 75
157 137 Hugh Shewell 29 39:14 Sevenoaks AC 52.78 19
167 22 Marion Van Lille 33 39:45 Sevenoaks AC 85.11 5
173 23 Pauline Dalton 54 39:54 Sevenoaks AC 84.40 44
178 155 James Nash 27 40:05 Sevenoaks AC 46.53 Debut
182 158 Toby Fitzmaurice 18 40:19 Sevenoaks AC 45.49 3
188 162 Graham Dwyer 46 40:26 Sevenoaks AC 44.10 5
201 31 Diana Bryant 44 40:52 Sevenoaks AC 78.72 5
204 173 Andy Manning 50 41:01 Sevenoaks AC 40.28 5
224 185 Duncan Cochrane 61 42:00 Sevenoaks AC 36.11 29
240 46 Sarah Shewell 59 42:56 Sevenoaks AC 68.09 107
245 48 Bridgit Weekes 60 43:22 Sevenoaks AC 66.67 5
295 66 Rhea Malkin 33 46:02 Sevenoaks AC 53.90 4
310 71 Paula George 54 46:52 Sevenoaks AC 50.35 3
349 256 Lionel Stielow 70 49:31 Sevenoaks AC 11.46 12
404 276 Peter Nuttall 46 54:15 Sevenoaks AC 4.51 23

The full results are here.

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 12 are needed to score in the team competition – 8 men (of whom two must be V50 and one V40) and 4 women (of whom one must be V45 and one V35).