SAC at KFL 2025/26 Match 4 Minnis Bay

SAC team at Minnis 26

A team of 27 runners from Sevenoaks Athletics Club braved the bitter cold to run in the 4th race of the KFL series, in Minnis Bay, Birchington on Sunday January 4th, writes Jim Knight.

Despite freezing temperatures, 454 runners from across Kent took part in the race. Following the recent freezing weather, the course was modified as some of the dykes were judged to be too dangerous to cross, but it was still a tough 5.5-mile course with deep water in some of the dykes.

The SAC team was missing several star runners, but still performed really well, with the women’s team coming 3rd and the men 5th. The combined team came 3rd.

Nicola Glover led the SAC women’s team home in 8th place (3rd W35), closely followed by Caroline Fenwick (9th, 2nd W45) and Sophie Day (14th). The other scoring members of the SAC women’s team were Heather Fitzmaurice (25th) and Sarah Philpott (44th). Once again, Sally Shewell ran brilliantly to be the fastest W65.

In the men’s race, Sevenoaks’ fastest runner was Guilaume Nineven in 12th place (2nd M40) followed by Ed Saunders (20th), Liam McLaughlin (23rd) and Andrew Hutchinson (31st). The other scoring members were Keith Dowson (49th and 2nd M60), Christopher Dick (65th), Dan Witt (84th), and Andy Ashlee (97th).

The full SAC results were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Bib	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Score	Rtg	#
12	12	788	Guillaume Nineven	40	35:59	Sevenoaks AC	V40:1	96.51	23
20	20	1118	Edmund Saunders	43	36:57	Sevenoaks AC	V40:2	93.97	34
23	23	785	Liam McLaughlin	32	37:07	Sevenoaks AC	M1	93.02	3
31	31	775	Andrew Hutchinson	46	37:38	Sevenoaks AC	M2	90.48	31
50	49	764	Keith Dowson	62	39:07	Sevenoaks AC	V60	84.76	27
69	65	763	Christopher Dick	34	39:59	Sevenoaks AC	M3	79.68	4
72	68	760	Daniel Chaplin	42	40:18	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	78.73	2
90	84	801	Daniel Witt	50	41:30	Sevenoaks AC	V50:1	73.65	82
92	8	771	Nicola Glover	38	41:40	Sevenoaks AC	V35	94.96	24
94	9	768	Caroline Fenwick	48	41:48	Sevenoaks AC	V45	94.24	17
108	97	754	Andrew Ashlee	56	42:35	Sevenoaks AC	V50:2	69.52	37
109	98	757	Adam Bates	42	42:45	Sevenoaks AC	NS	69.21	15
128	14	762	Sophie Day	37	43:54	Sevenoaks AC	F1	90.65	8
148	132	752	Brian Allen	54	44:50	Sevenoaks AC	NS	58.41	15
149	133	1103	Andrew Bradley	61	44:59	Sevenoaks AC	NS	58.10	2
157	139	777	David Killpack	40	45:15	Sevenoaks AC	NS	56.19	17
165	143	772	Rob Hadden	57	45:33	Sevenoaks AC	NS	54.92	6
167	145	756	James Baker	61	45:38	Sevenoaks AC	NS	54.29	36
177	25	769	Heather Fitzmaurice	56	45:48	Sevenoaks AC	V55	82.73	88
179	154	780	Leonard Lai King	46	46:07	Sevenoaks AC	NS	51.43	23
201	172	766	Andrew Evans	55	46:55	Sevenoaks AC	NS	45.71	63
248	44	792	Sarah Philpott	47	49:28	Sevenoaks AC	F2	69.06	11
262	212	784	Simon Mann	45	50:03	Sevenoaks AC	NS	33.02	7
317	248	800	Jeremy Winter	72	52:53	Sevenoaks AC	NS	21.59	19
351	82	793	Sarah Shewell	66	55:33	Sevenoaks AC	NS	41.73	136
378	287	776	Achin Joshi	38	58:23	Sevenoaks AC	NS	9.21	3
401	103	755	Maria Ashlee	54	1:00:49	Sevenoaks AC	NS	26.62	6

The full results are here.

After 4 races, the men’s team is in 4th place, the women 2nd, and the combined team 2nd.

The next race is in Betteshanger Park, Deal on January 11th.

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 one must be aged 60+, two must be 50+ and two 40+) and 4 women (of whom one must be aged 55+, one 45+ and one 35+).