Sevenoaks Athletics Club

John & Sally Win Categories At Maidstone Half 2019

John Witton was third overall and first M40 while Sally Shewell won the W55 category at the Maidstone Half on 13 October.

The tough race was also the final Kent Grand Prix race of the 2019 series, so it was handy that Sevenoaks AC had four finishers in the first 17 with John third in 1:25:01, Andrew Milne eleventh in 1:29:36, Mike Lochead thirteenth in 1:30:47 and Russell Crane seventeenth in 1:33:12.

Sally, the only Sevenoaks runner to run both at Maidstone and the previous Sunday's Half at Tonbridge, was 127th (19th woman) in 1:56:49. The SAC contingent of just six runners was completed by Hugh Shewell, 188th in 2:06:54.

The full results are here.

Kent XC League 2019/20 - Match 1, Swanley Park

Sevenoaks AC fielded a full team of four runners in the men's race at the first match of the new Kent League cross-country season at New Barn Park, Swanley on 12th October. SAC's all-veteran team of Andrew Mead (134th in 40:07), Zachary Ramsden (145th in 40:39), Dan Witt (165th in 41:33) and Chris Desmond (213th in 43:33) finished 18th of 22 complete teams on the day. Andrew Mead was also 13th M50 and Chris Desmond 14th M55.

SAC also had a representative in the women's race with Suzy Claridge flying the flag in 50th place (12th W45 in 21:20).

Sevenoaks AC was also represented in four of the junior races, with full teams in both the U13 boys and girls events. The U13 boys team of Ryan Alford-Smith (34th in 11:27), Andrew Simmons (38th in 11:34), James Beecroft (41st in 11:39), Frederick Naughton (49th in 12:13), William Hurst (56th in 13:19) and Harry Mitchell (57th in 13:20) finished 8th team, while the girls team of Alexia Scotiniadis (43rd in 12:52), Lucy Edwards (46th in 13:00) and Heidi Wilding (61st in 15:20) were 9th. And in the U15 girls race, Rhianna Munn was 42nd in 18:22 and Tamzin Moore 48th in 18:42, with Thomas Mitchell 45th in 16:09 and Alex Holden 66th in 19:33 in the boys race.

The full results are here.

Match 2 in the series is at Somerhill School, Tonbridge on 26th October at 12:00. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details.

David, Bridgit & Sylvia Win Categories At Tonbridge Half 2019

David Ives was fourth overall and first M40, Bridgit Weekes first W60 and Sylvia Lewis first W65 at the Tonbridge Half on 6th October. And the Sevenoaks AC women's team of Bridgit, Marion van Lille and Laura Andrade won second team. Also Laura was second W40, Simon Hallpike third M65 and Sally Shewell fourth W60 as fifteen SAC runners tackled the hilly course in unexpectedly sunny and breezy conditions. The Sevenoaks AC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

SAC M80 Titans Clash at Kent Masters

The M80 events at the KCAA Masters Championships at the Erith Stadium on 14th-15th September 2019 were exclusively contested by Sevenoaks AC athletes. Richard Pitcairn-Knowles rushed back from the European Masters Athletics Championships in Venice to challenge young would-be usurper Ron Denney at two of the events.

Fresh from third place at both the 1500m and 4k cross-country in Venice, Richard, who is the UK M85 record-holder over 3,000m indoors, would surely be favoured for the Kent 1500m title? But in a race where Richard ran some 24 seconds faster than in the Italian event, Ron outdipped him by less than 0.4 seconds in 9:38.93 to 9:39.30.

However, Richard prevailed as they both contested the 400m, winning, again by a small margin, in 2:05.45 to 2:07.53.

In other events, Ron won the 800m, Discus and Shot and Richard the 100m, with David Simpson taking gold in the javelin with a magnificent throw of 18.22 in the fourth round. The Kent Masters results are here, and the results from Venice here.