Seventeen Sevenoaks AC athletes took part in Sunday’s Tonbridge Half marathon, which, this year incorporated the Kent County Championships, writes Jim Knight.

At 10am the 1300 runners left West Kent College in fine sunny conditions to tackle the undulating 13-mile route around the leafy lanes of Tonbridge and Leigh.

Tonbridge AC athlete Julian Rendall led the field home in an impressive 1hr 14.08.

The first Sevenoaks AC athlete home was David Ives with a speedy 1.17.44, to place 7th     overall, 4th in the County Championships.

Not far behind, in 1.25.40 was 50-year-old Chris Desmond who placed 2nd M50 in the County Championships. This was particularly impressive as Chris came 2nd M50 in the tough Dartford 10 the previous weekend.

Several other SAC athlete recorded top 100 positions:- Keith Brown in 40th, Keith Dowson in 50th, Dan Witt in 67th and John Stevens in 88th.

Overall the SAC team came 3rd.

Veteran SAC athlete Ron Denney recorded the fastest time in the M70 category, but due to an administrative error was not registered for the County Championships.

In the women’s race, Paddock Wood Athlete, Maria Heslop had a convincing win in 1.22.46 coming 25th overall.

SAC athlete Heather Fitzmaurice became County W35 champion, and Sally Shewell was 2nd W55.

Overall a highly successful day for Sevenoaks AC.

The team is looking forward to the Kent Fitness League cross-country series that starts
in Knole Park on Sunday October 19th.  Having been runners-up in the 2013/14 season the club is hoping to go one better this time.

The SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

And Geoff Vine was 1st M60 at the Dartford Bridge 10k (29th overall) in 44:36 - full results here.

Chris Desmond was 2nd M50 and 16th overall at the Kent Grand Prix Dartford 10 on Sunday 21st September. In addition Sally Shewell kept up her recent good form with third W55 and Dan Witt also had a good run. The SAC results were as follows:

Pos    #    Name                 Cat            Club                 Chip Time   Gun Time
16    94     Chris DESMOND    M   V50    Sevenoaks AC    01:02:19    01:02:22
43   394    Daniel WITT        M    SEN    Sevenoaks AC    01:07:06    01:07:08
236  501   Sarah SHEWELL    F    V55    Sevenoaks AC    01:25:46    01:26:03

The full results are here.

Eschewing the Kent GP race, Geoff Vine kept up his club GP challenge with a solo appearance at the Faversham 10k. Geoff was 41st in a field of nearly 400:

No. Name           Gun    Club              No. Chip

41  Geoffrey Vine 44:21 Sevenoaks AC 292 44:18

The full results are here.

James Wright won the September Handicap with a new PB for the five mile course. See details here.

Keith Dowson was first M50 and third overall in the Kent County Marathon Championships race at Thanet on 7 September. Only a few seconds behind second place, Keith finished in 2:59:13. The race was also the BMAF championships, making Keith the reigning British M50 marathon champion.

Also in the Full marathon, Rob Carr was 173rd in 5:09:40, and Maryanne Aitken was 191st in 5:36:53. Scott Haggarty was 93rd in the accompanying Half Marathon in 1:53:31.

The full results are here.