The sixteen Sevenoaks AC runners who made the long trip down to Deal for the fourth match of the 2017/18 Kent Fitness League on 7th January delivered a brilliant team performance for the club. In windy conditions, both the women and men ran really well to place second in the combined team results, with the women's team third and the men second on the day. This keeps the combined team second after four matches with the women now leading the standings and the men second.
There were also some great individual performances, in particular Heather Fitzmaurice who led home the women's team in fourth place and first W45. Andrew Milne was our first man in 10th, with Andrew Mead 3rd M40 just two places behind. Keith Dowson was third M50 and James Graham second M60. The SAC results were:
| Ov Pos | Lg Pos | Runner | Age | Time | Club | Rating | # Races |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 | Andrew Milne | 35 | 31:23 | Sevenoaks AC | 96.09 | 13 |
| 12 | 12 | Andrew Mead | 49 | 31:39 | Sevenoaks AC | 95.22 | 31 |
| 14 | 14 | Andrew Hutchingson | 38 | 31:49 | Sevenoaks AC | 94.35 | 3 |
| 24 | 23 | Keith Dowson | 54 | 32:31 | Sevenoaks AC | 90.43 | 11 |
| 25 | 24 | Nick Humphrey-Taylor | 45 | 32:36 | Sevenoaks AC | 90.00 | Debut |
| 28 | 27 | Daniel Witt | 42 | 32:42 | Sevenoaks AC | 88.70 | 43 |
| 32 | 30 | Andy Ashlee | 48 | 32:55 | Sevenoaks AC | 87.39 | 22 |
| 71 | 68 | James Graham | 64 | 35:11 | Sevenoaks AC | 70.87 | 19 |
| 82 | 4 | Heather Fitzmaurice | 48 | 35:41 | Sevenoaks AC | 97.30 | 68 |
| 85 | 5 | Vanessa Gilmartin | 42 | 35:50 | Sevenoaks AC | 96.40 | 4 |
| 91 | 86 | Tony Waldron | 50 | 36:15 | Sevenoaks AC | 63.04 | 21 |
| 216 | 45 | Sarah Shewell | 58 | 43:38 | Sevenoaks AC | 60.36 | 99 |
| 244 | 190 | Paul Allum | 54 | 46:12 | Sevenoaks AC | 17.83 | 3 |
| 252 | 58 | Anna Humphrey-Taylor | 48 | 46:52 | Sevenoaks AC | 48.65 | Debut |
| 280 | 70 | Grazia Manzotti | 48 | 51:06 | Sevenoaks AC | 37.84 | 5 |
| 282 | 72 | Jenny Austin | 40 | 51:48 | Sevenoaks AC | 36.04 | 13 |
The full results are here.
Jim Knight adds: "Congratulations to the 16 SAC runners who made the trip to Fowlmead. A great result. Our combined team is now 2nd and the women’s team is leading the series. It was good to see Grace, Jenny and Anna taking part. A perfect demonstration of Andrew Mead’s point that everyone can help the team.
"After 3 races, Petts Wood women were in the lead. At Fowlmead, they failed to field a full team and their last scorer was given 112th position.
They came 10th on the day and dropped to 3rd in the series. Let’s hope that we can persuade enough SAC runners to enjoy the run (and free swim) in Minnis Bay (match 5 on Sunday 14th January), for us to keep ahead of Petts Wood."
Allan Lee was 11th and first M40 at the Kent Cross Country Championships at Brands Hatch on 6th January. Eleven Sevenoaks AC runners contested the event over a tough muddy course. Allan was joined in the senior men's race by Darrell Smith in 56th (2nd M50) and James Graham 159th (2nd M60).
Six of the runners were juniors in the U13 categories. Ollie Brownridge was an impressive 20th in the boys race, backed up by Dominic Fulton in 56th and Jacques Malan in 88th.The boys were one short of a team, but the girls team of Julia Sackville-West, 39th, Erin Vallance, 46th, and Daisy Fricker, 53rd, did register a team score - the only Sevenoaks runners to do so on the day - in eighth place.
SAC even had representation in the senior women's race in which Jacqui O'Reilly was 25th and Grace Manzotti 100th. All the results are here. Videos of the races are here.
What a better way to start the new year than doing double parkrun. Grazia Manzotti and Rob Johnson went first to Maidstone for the Maidstone parkrun which started at 8.30 and then back to Tonbridge for the Tonbridge parkrun which started at 10.30. At Tonbridge we met several Sevenoaks runners. Maidstone is a nice parkrun along the river and back, very congested at the beginning as the path is narrow but then could be a PB one (not today after New Years celebrations!) and when we got to Tonbridge it started raining and the course was puddles puddles puddles and a mud bath. But it was great fun. Happy Running New year to everybody,
Grace
Four SAC runners took part in the Staplehurst 10 miler on 31st December in wet and windy conditions, writes James Graham. Just to make it more interesting there was the addition of an unintentional water splash just before the long climb.
Nick Humphrey-Taylor was 11th (4th M40) in 1:04:43, James Graham 18th (1st M60) in 1:07:51, Anna Humphrey-Taylor 165th in 1:31:47 and Neil Haggertay 225th in 1:42:44.
The full results are here.