Holly Diprose wins Kent Schools

Sevenoaks AC athlete, Holly Diprose, won the U16 Girls 1500m Kent Schools County Champs, at Medway Park, Gillingham on June 10th, writes Darrell Smith.

Bringing together the best young athletes in the County, this event is one of the highlights of Kent Athletics Season and serves as a selection race for future Kent County teams.

In hot conditions the pace was fast but even paced, setting all up for fast times. Going into the last lap, Holly was closely tracking the leader. But down the back straight she hit the front and moved away clearly to win in a time of 4.51.67 - a Personal Best and Club Record. In fact it’s faster than the Sevenoaks ACs senior women’s record!

Congratulations to Holly Diprose – County Champion. Her first individual Kent title, this represents a step forward for Holly who had placed 3rd in this event for the last two years. Her performance has earned her a run for Kent at the forthcoming Inter-Counties Match.

SCVAC T&F 2023 - Match 5, Tonbridge

The results of our over-35s athletics meeting at Tonbridge on 7th July have just gone onto the Power of 10 website (at full results), writes Gary Walsh.  There were 6 team members: Rebecca Pickard, Gary Walsh, Graham Dwyer, Jon Maxim, Keith Dowson and Paul Fanti.  Everyone achieved either a race win, a PB or a Club Best performance, details below!

Once again, Rebecca was the sole representative on the women’s team, her events being 400m and 3000m.  She finished 1st in the W35A 400m in 70.1 seconds, a new PB and an improvement on her own W45 Club Best performance from earlier in the season.  She also finished 1st in the W35A 3000m (her first ever race at the distance!), knocking more than 50 seconds off the previous W45 Club Best!

In the men's 400m Gary finished 5th in the M35A race in a new PB of 74.9 seconds, Jon finished 4th in the M35B race in a PB of 69.4 seconds, and Graham put in an outstanding performance in the M50 race to finish 1st in 65.8 seconds!  The sprints took their toll, with Gary aggravating a foot injury within the first few strides and Graham tweaking a hamstring after 50m - Graham valiantly continued in the remaining events but Gary's night was over.

In the men's 3000m, Keith put in a highly impressive performance to finish 1st in the M60 race in 11:53.7!

In the field events, Jon finished 4th in the M35 Hammer with a throw of 9.31m, Graham (with a visibly tweaked hamstring) finished 5th in the M50 Triple Jump with 8.13m, and Keith finished a strong 3rd in the M50 Hammer with a new M60 Club Best throw of 16.84m, extending his PB by nearly 2m!

The meeting ended with the 4x400m relay, and once again we were able to field a team - 3 out of 3 relays so far this season!  The team (Graham, Jon, Keith and Paul) finished in 5th place in 4:46.3 which beat the existing M45 Club Best by 1.5 seconds!  Special thanks to Graham for bravely running with his injured hamstring and to Keith for stepping in to replace the broken Gary!

With the significant points scored, and Swanley/Eynesford once again not fielding any athletes on the night, the men's team further strengthened our 5th place in Division 2.  In the women's competition, Rebecca has single-handedly put us up to 5th place in Division 2 ahead of Swanley/Eynesford!

The final meeting of the season will be at Dartford on Friday 28th July with the following events:

(6:45) 800m W, long jump M, high jump W, shot put M, discus W;
(7.25) 800m M;
(8.00) long jump W, discus M;
(8.05) 100m W;
(8.25) 100m M;
(8.45) 4x200m relay W;
(9:05) 4x200m relay M.

Geoffrey will issue a call for athletes nearer the time - it'd be great if we could get a good turnout and field relay teams yet again!  (And they're all short races so you could do them all and still barely run more than a kilometre - you'll run further in the warm-up :-)

SCVAC T&F 2023 - Match 4, Norman Park, Bromley

The warm, sunny evening of Friday 23 June made for a good outing for over-35 athletics at the Norman Park track, Bromley, writes Geoffrey Kitchener.  We had a team of five – David Simpson, Gary Walsh, Graham Dwyer, Rebecca Pickard and me – and held fifth positions on the day in Division 2, both men and women.  (Rebecca single-handedly held off the Swanley/Eynsford women’s team to achieve this.)  Unusually, the meeting organisation was a bit patchy, with the starter not having brought along a pistol (so the track results will not go on the power of ten website, although John Denyer says that club bests can count), with equipment incompatibility preventing announcements, and there being fewer officials than expected.  As a result, I found myself volunteering to be lead official at the high jump, having never filled in a results sheet before (these are complicated, but competitors kindly helped me), and David stepped in to help raise the bar (little did he expect that this would go up to 2 metres, a challenge for all concerned!).
 

Track events began with 200m, Rebecca winning third place in the second fastest time achieved by an SAC W45 athlete.  In the men’s 200m we were represented by Gary, Duncan and Graham, the latter taking third M50 place in a PB of 29.6 seconds.  At 1500m Rebecca, having already shattered the club best performance earlier this season, took over ten seconds more off, coming second in 5:26.7.  At present, this is likely to represent 17th or 18th place in the national rankings (although the absence of power of ten results will prevent it from figuring).  Graham at this distance again took third M50 place in a PB and Duncan was third in the M60s.  The last track event was the 2k walk, in which I was our only representative, coming second (to my surprise) in the M35 race, in a time undercutting the club’s M70 best performance by 21 seconds.
 

The field events in which we entered were javelin, shot and high jump.  Rebecca improved her javelin PB for a third place; Gary also improved his PB; and David Simpson’s fourth M60 place would rank in the top three nationally for M80s, but for his having to use the heavier M60 javelin.  Our only shot putter was Duncan and our only high jumper was Graham, who claimed second M50 place with 1.36m, a PB and club M50 best performance.
 

So, although we were few in numbers, it was a satisfying evening, with personal and club bests.  Our next outing will be at Tonbridge track, on Friday 7 July, when there will be 400m, 3000m, 4 x 400m relay, triple jump, hammer throw, high jump (women) and pole vault (men).  Offers to join in will be welcome.

Southern Athletics League 2023 - Matches 1 & 2

Southern League Match 1 Dartford 20th May 2023

The Club fielded its first ever Team in the Southern League, writes Darrell Smith. This is a Senior League but open to U17s and above. With over 20 Athletes now at the Club in the U17 age group I’m hoping we can make rapid progress in this League.

The Team finished 5th overall with our Men finishing 2nd.

For a first time ever in the League this new team did really well. But with just 3 athletes on the women’s side we were always going up against it.

7pbs achieved and two individual wins: Ama Ekperigin 13.2 and Holly Diprose 2.25.9 in the 800m.

Coach Jon Levett showed how it’s done running a Senior Club Record in the 100m with an 11.6 clocking, breaking the old record set in 1985. Set before Jon was born!

The Relays at the end of the Meeting proved an exciting conclusion. In the Men’s 4 x 400m , SAC dead heated with host Central Park clocking 3.59 and our 4 x 100m Team came out winners in a Club Record of 48.4.

Southern Athletics League - Lewes Sunday 18th June - Match 2 Report

Match 2 of the Southern Athletics League season took place in Lewes on Sunday 18th June, writes Gary Walsh, and saw an outstanding performance by the Sevenoaks AC team to move us up from 5th to joint 3rd place in Division 3 Kent (tied on league points and match points with Swale Combined).  Let's keep the momentum going in the remaining 2 matches of what is, amazingly, our first season as a solo team in the league!

The women's team consisted of Emily Holden, Holly Diprose and Rebecca Pickard.  The men's team was Aiden Moore, Darrell Smith, Gary Walsh, Indy Morris, Jonathon Levett, Luke Bridges, Oloff Van Zyl, Richard Alford-Smith and Ryan Alford-Smith.

The weather was warm but increasingly wet as the afternoon went on so well done to everyone for putting in such strong performances, and thanks to Darrell for making sure we were one of the few teams with a gazebo to shelter under!

In the women's sprints, Rebecca finished 3rd in the 400m A race in her first ever race over the distance.

In the women's middle-distance events, Holly and Rebecca both finished 1st in their races (A and B string respectively) in near-identical times.

In the women's field events, Emily finished 2nd in both the A string shot put and javelin.

In the men's sprints, Jon finished 2nd in both the 100m and 200m A races, Ryan finished 2nd in the 200m A race, Richard finished 3rd in the 100m A race, and Aiden finished 4th in the 400m A race.

In the men's middle-distance events, Luke finished 3rd in the 800m A race, Indy finished 1st in the 800m B race, Richard finished 2nd in the 1500m A race and 3rd in the 5000m A race, and Gary finished 3rd in both the 1500m and 5000m B races.

Over the men's barriers, Oloff put in his customary strong performances to finish 1st in the 400m hurdles and 2nd in the 2000m steeplechase.

In the men's field events, Oloff finished 2nd in the A string pole vault, Luke finished 4th in the A string long jump, Ryan finished 1st in the B string long jump, and Darrell finished 3rd in the A string shot put.

The next match takes place in Ashford on Sunday 9th July.  If that date seems strangely familiar...it's the same day as the Sevenoaks 7 and club BBQ!  Darrell will be sending out a call for athletes nearer the time and whilst the Sevenoaks 7 and BBQ are key dates in the SAC calendar, it would be great if we can field a strong team and build on the success of the first 2 matches.