Jamie Philip led the Sevenoaks AC team home with a sub 1:17 performance as 15 of our runners tackled the Paddock Wood Half in near perfect conditions on Sunday 3rd March.

The flat course and conditions helped several of the SAC performances to improve on club records. Paul Fanti took nearly three minutes minutes off Chris Desmond's M50 record.

Further down the field, James Graham shook off the effects of cancer treatment and a hip injury to chop two-and-a-half minutes off Richard Pitcairn-Knowles' SAC M70 club best, set at the same race twenty years ago. James also took third M70 in the Kent Long Course Championship race.

And in another excellent performance, Caroline Fenwick set a new club best for a W45, with Jo Rodda also beating Pauline Dalton's previous record.

The full SAC results were:

The full results are here.

The final race in the Kent Fitness League 23/24 series took place in Blean Woods at Rough Common near Canterbury on Sunday Feb 25th, writes Jim Knight. After days of heavy rain the course was challenging, with flooded paths and deep mud.

Twenty-six Sevenoaks AC runners made the journey, and once again, the SAC women’s team excelled, coming 3rd, behind strong teams from Petts Wood Runners and Canterbury Harriers and securing second place in the 7-race series.

In addition, the Sevenoaks women have a number of individual age group champions:-
Andrea Berquez, overall runner-up and W35 champion
Joanna Rodda, F45 champion. (Caroline Fenwick, runner-up)
Catherine Linney, F50 champion

The other scorers in the team at Rough Common were Nicola Glover and Bridgit Weekes.

The men’s team was weakened by the absence of key runners, but still managed a highly creditable 5th place on the day and 5th place in the series. The scoring team was Ed Saunders, Darius Sarshar, Harvey Taylor, Seb Naughton, David Killpack, Andy Ashlee, Mike McCarthy, and Chris Desmond.

The combined team came in 5th place on the day and 5th in the series, just one point behind Canterbury Harriers and two points behind Paddock Wood. The full SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

Kent Fitness league is one of the highlights of SAC’s season, thanks to the energetic team captains, Pauline Dalton (8th W55) and Dan Witt (79th M45) and Duncan Warwick-Champion with his high-decibel cheering and home-made cookies at the finish. There is a great team spirit despite the wet and windy conditions (Allhallows), water-filled dykes (Minnis Bay), and deep, deep mud (Rough Common). As one runner said, ”I loved every muddy moment of it. Thanks for all the cheering support, camaraderie and cookies. I’m very much looking forward to the next season”.

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 one must be aged 60+, two must be 50+ and two 40+) and 5 women (of whom one must be aged 55+, one 45+ and one 35+).

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Simon Rowe won the second race of the 2024 handicap series over seven miles by over three minutes from Andrew Mead on Sunday 11th February.

Nicola Glover was the fastest woman in third and David Hale the fastest overall in seventh. Five runners beat their handicaps on the day.

The next race is on Sunday 10th March at 08:30 from the track.

The details are here.

The penultimate race of this year’s Kent Fitness League took place in Allhallows Holiday Park near Rochester on Sunday February 4th.

This year’s Kent Fitness League has been hard fought between the leading contenders, Sevenoaks AC, Petts Wood Runners, Canterbury Harriers, Maidstone & Medway AC, Paddock Wood AC and Dartford Harriers, with record numbers of competitors.

The series comprises 7 gruelling cross-country races starting in Swanley in October, and touring the county with races in Knole Park, Eltham, Minnis Bay, Deal, Allhallows Park, and finishing in 3 weeks’ time in Rough Common on February 25th.

The women’s team competition has been particularly close, with Sevenoaks AC (champions in 2020, 21, and 2022) trying to catch last year’s champions, Canterbury Harriers, and stay ahead of Paddock Wood AC. The Sevenoaks team was reduced to 22 runners through injuries to several key runners and the team feared that they might not have enough women for a full scoring team.

On a wet and windy day the 447 runners set off on 6 mile two-lap course. From the start field, they ran down to the beach for a long technical section along the shoreline where they faced gravel, mud, seaweed and ditches. Then back up to the start field to do it all again.

Once again, Sevenoaks’ Andrea Berquez ran brilliantly to finish in 2nd place, closely followed by Nicola Glover (6th), Caroline Fenwick (9th), and Cath Linney (11th). The club’s top W55 runners were absent through injury, but 63 year old Becca Crowe ran the race of her life, achieving a rating 10 percentage points higher than she had previously achieved in KFL, coming home in 78th position. This pulled the women’s team up by 3 places to 2nd place on the day, and better still, by helping the SAC women to finished above Paddock Wood AC ensures that Sevenoaks women will finish in 2nd place in the league, irrespective of the results of the final race in 3 weeks’ time.

The SAC men’s team was also lacking several runners through injury, but once again, Guillaume Nineven ran well to finish in 17th place. The other scoring members of the men’s team were Stephen Hough (52nd in his debut race), Harvey Taylor (62nd), Seb Naughton (79th), James Baker (84th), David Kilpack (86th ), and Andrew Monk (91st).

The men’s team came 5th on the day and remain in 5th place in the series. The combined team came 5th on the day and remain in 4th place in the series. The full SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.