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.