Caroline Double Medalist at Kent GP

With the completion of the Sittingbourne 10 on 1st October, the final results are in from the Kent Road Race Grand Prix and, after some brilliant racing, Caroline Fenwick finished third woman overall and first W45.

Caroline led the Sevenoaks AC women to 8th place out of the 43 competing clubs, with points also contributed by Dawn Nunes, Julia Davis, Nicola Glover, Sally Shewell, Lucy Wilkes, Bridgit Weekes and Glenda Goscomb.

In the men's competition, SAC were 15th with points from Chris Desmond, Alan Male, Paul Fanti, Michael Lochead, Andy Nicoll, Andrew Hutchinson, Simon Hallpike, James Nash, Richard Alford-Smith, Sean Leith, Daniel Stewart, David Hale and Andrew Milne.

The full results are here.

The first four races of the 2024 GP are already selected:

21st January - Canterbury 10
18th February - Tunbridge Wells Half
3rd March - Paddock Wood Half (and the Kent Long Course Championships)
29th March - Folkestone 10 (the April event).

It is intended that the KGP 2023 awards will be after the Canterbury 10 race and those concerned will be notified in early January, with a complete list of all ten KGP events between January and October 2024 to be issued in a few weeks time. The details are here.

Tonbridge Half Marathon & 10k & 5k 2023

Nine Sevenoaks AC runners took on the Tonbridge Half or accompanying 10k in humid conditions on 1st October with some excellent results.

Johnny Mead was fifth overall in the 10k, while Lionel Stielow was first M70 and Lucy Wilkes 2nd W40:

Among the six in the Half Marathon, Ed Saunders led the team home in under ninety minutes while Sally Shewell shook off a foot injury to finish second W60 and Simon Hallpike was first M70. Also, great to see Richie Thomas back racing a year after completing his cancer treatment. The SAC results were:

The full results are here.

Sevenoaks AC 2023 Summer Report

Team wise, the main focus this Summer, after being promoted last Summer to Div 1 of the KYAL (U13/15) was to maintain our position in the League, writes head coach Darrell Smith. In addition, establish an U17 Team in the Southern Track League. Individually we were looking for our Athletes to place at Kent Champs and maybe qualify for National Champs.

Kent Club Champs

On May 14/15th the U15s and U17s had their Kent Club Champs at Bromley.  The highlight was Bronze in the U15G Shot for Briana Karunga and a 4th for Holly Diprose in the U17W 1500m. In the U17M 100m Toby Vagg was an impressive 7th and Liv Mtungwazi was one place short of making the U15G 100m Final.

Kent Schools Championships, Medway Park, Gillingham

By June, the season was fully in swing and the temperatures were hot on Sat 10th June at Medway Park. Representing their School districts but very much SAC Athletes, Holly Diprose converted her previous two 4ths at 1500m at this event with a 1st place which was probably her best race of the season.

Other performance there included a 6th in the 400m for Luke Bridges and 5th for Hattie Carson in the Long Jump.

U13/U15s Kent Young Athlete League – SAC stay in Kent’s Premier League

Our Season started well with 6th at our first KYAL match and Norman Park on the 29th April, staking a claim for Div 1 Athletics in 2024.

In June the U13/U15s were in action again at Bromley. A tough match we slipped to 7th and into the relegation zone. It was clear that it was going to be a close-run thing to achieve the goal of "avoiding the drop".

In the July Match we fought back to 6th (by 4pts) to earn the critical match points which meant a straight fight between ourselves and Invicta East Kent at the last match. We put in a great effort on the 12th August to extend our lead over Invicta and secure premiership Athletics in 2024. In fact, our U13Gs actually won their age-group. A new level for the Club.

Southern League, Kent Division – a foothold for U17s

This Summer saw the Club field its first Team in the Southern League Div 3 (Kent). An adult League but also perfect for our U17s. Over 4 matches the Club ended up 5th. A total of twelve U17s competed for the Club ably assisted by SAC Seniors. I’m confident we can rise up this League over the next few years as more Athletes emerge from the U15s.

Kent U13 Champs – grand finale

Always at the end of the Season, the Kent U13 Champs provided a late flourish for the Club. Ten Athletes competed with three achieving medals. Bronzes for Matilda Murray in the 70m Hurdles, Olwyn Mtungwazi in the Shot and Andrij Znetyniak in the Discus. A special mention for James Trenter who was 4th in the 75m Hurdles and 7th in the Javelin in only his 2nd competition.

So, a successful Season with 75 athletes competing for the Club this Summer. Seventeen Club records were broken. Twenty-six Athletes competed at one or both of the County Champs achieving a gold and three Bronze. Its worth reflecting that in 2016 we had twenty-one Athletes compete for the Club and were 6th in Div 2 of the KYAL with just 3 Club records.

Larkfield 10k 2023

Ten SAC runners contested the Larkfield 10k on 17th September and came away with five medals after some great performances.

In a race that doubled as the Kent Road Race Short-Course Championships, Paul Fanti led the team home in twentieth place overall and was 2nd M50.

The other medallists were Caroline Fenwick, 3rd W45, Dawn Nunes, 3rd W35, Bridgit Weekes, 1st W65 and Simon Hallpike, 1st M70.

Conditions were cloudy and humid but the relatively flat two-lap course helped yield some good times, as shown in the Sevenoaks AC results below:

The full results are here.