KFL 2024-25 - Match 4 - Minnis Bay · Sevenoaks Athletics Club

A team of 22 runners from Sevenoaks Athletics Club braved the elements to run in the 4th race of the KFL series, in Minnis Bay, Birchington on Sunday January 5th, writes Jim Knight.

It was wet, windy and cold, but despite the bad weather 451 runners from across Kent took part in the race. Following the recent heavy rain, the course was even wetter than normal, making it a gruelling 6-mile race with waist 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 2nd and the men 5th. The combined team came 3rd.

Joanna Rodda led the SAC women’s team home in 3rd place (and 1st W45), closely followed by Nicola Glover in 4th. The other scoring members of the SAC women’s team were Heather Fitzmaurice (33rd), Vanessa Gilmartin (36th) and Rosie Williams (44th). This was an outstanding performance as only 6 Sevenoaks AC women made it to the race, and the team needed 5 to score. In contrast, the winning women’s team, Canterbury Harriers, fielded a team of 15.

In the men’s race, Sevenoaks’ fastest runner was Guilaume Nineven (9th) closely followed by Ed Saunders in 10th place. The other scoring members were Paul Fanti (36th), Andrew Hutchinson (52nd), Keith Dowson (62nd and 1st M60), Seb Naughton (73rd), Andrew Monk (84th), and David Kilpack (87th).
Once again, Sevenoaks’ Jeremy Winter was the fastest M70.
A special mention for Adam Bates (pictured) who lost a shoe in one of the dykes, spent 5 minutes in waist-deep water to find it…….and still finished in 286th position.

After 4 races, the SAC women are still leading the series just ahead of Canterbury Harriers …..by just one point. The men’s team are lying 3rd and the combined team 2nd, just one point behind the leaders, Petts Wood Runners.

The SAC positions and times were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Bib	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Score	Rtg	#
9	9	891	Guillaume Nineven	39	38:54	Sevenoaks AC	M1	97.35	19
10	10	899	Edmund Saunders	42	39:13	Sevenoaks AC	V40:1	97.02	30
36	36	860	Paul Fanti	51	41:43	Sevenoaks AC	V50:1	88.41	6
53	52	874	Andrew Hutchinson	45	43:07	Sevenoaks AC	V40:2	83.11	26
63	62	857	Keith Dowson	61	43:43	Sevenoaks AC	V60	79.80	21
75	3	896	Joanne Rodda	48	44:52	Sevenoaks AC	V45	98.66	9
76	73	890	Sebastian Naughton	50	44:53	Sevenoaks AC	V50:2	76.16	20
79	4	864	Nicola Glover	37	45:03	Sevenoaks AC	V35	97.99	19
91	84	886	Andrew Monk	48	45:41	Sevenoaks AC	M2	72.52	14
94	87	875	David Killpack	39	46:03	Sevenoaks AC	M3	71.52	14
95	88	907	Daniel Witt	49	46:07	Sevenoaks AC	NS	71.19	76
145	128	844	Brian Allen	53	48:55	Sevenoaks AC	NS	57.95	10
177	149	884	Jonathan Marsh	65	50:10	Sevenoaks AC	NS	50.99	13
184	153	846	James Baker	60	50:53	Sevenoaks AC	NS	49.67	33
193	33	862	Heather Fitzmaurice	55	51:32	Sevenoaks AC	V55	78.52	82
198	164	878	Leonard Lai King	45	51:45	Sevenoaks AC	NS	46.03	19
204	169	906	Jeremy Winter	71	52:13	Sevenoaks AC	NS	44.37	13
212	36	863	Vanessa Gilmartin	49	52:49	Sevenoaks AC	F1	76.51	37
235	192	882	Alan Male	55	54:05	Sevenoaks AC	NS	36.75	11
243	44	905	Rosie Williams	56	54:18	Sevenoaks AC	F2	71.14	2
286	225	847	Adam Bates	41	56:43	Sevenoaks AC	NS	25.83	10
341	84	900	Sarah Shewell	65	1:00:41	Sevenoaks AC	NS	44.30	131

The full results are here.

The next race is in Betteshanger Park, Deal on January 12th.

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

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