The third race of the seven race Kent X- Country Fitness League was held Sunday at Oxleas Woods, near Welling. Eighteen running clubs from all over Kent took part with 452 runners present.

Mike Fanning for Sevenoaks AC, coming back from injury, achieved third place in 32min 32sec over the 5.5 mile hilly, muddy course. This excellent time gave him first place in the M45 age group. Allan Lee, also recovering from injury, was twenty-sixth in 34.50 and Sam Begg was close behind in 35.38. These three runners were backed up by Chris Desmond, first M50, Andrew Mead, Jamie Saunders and Lee Lintern as the scoring Sevenoaks male team.

Sevenoaks ladies, without a few of their stars, were ably led home by Pauline Dalton in 40.45 for 131st place, eighth lady  and first W45. Pauline was well supported by Amy Wolstencroft, fifteenth lady in 42.42, and Judy Howells, seventeenth lady in 43.02

Other fine performances by Sevenoaks runners were by Geoff Vine third M65 and James Fitzmaurice first M70, just to show the OLDIES can still turn it out!

Overall Sevenoaks AC combined team had 35 runners in the field, again performing very well to hold on to second place in the series, the men's team also retaining second place and the ladies now third. Dartford Harriers are the leading Kent team but Sevenoaks can still get the lead back with four races to go.

The SAC results were as follows:

Ov Pos

Lg Pos

Runner

Age

Time

Club

Rating

The full results are here.

The second race in the Kent Fitness League series took place in Swanley Park.

In bright sunny conditions, over 500 runners from 18 clubs in Kent completed the five-mile course, comprising three muddy laps of the park.

Sevenoaks AC were beaten into second place by a very strong team from Dartford Harriers, but retain the lead in the series after an outstanding performance in the first race in Knole Park.

The fastest Sevenoaks AC performer was Mike Fanning who came 6th, although he is still recovering from injury.
The other counters in the men’s team were Sam Begg (21st), Chris Desmond (38th), Andy Nicoll (45th), Andrew Mead (48th), Andrew Linney (50th), and Keith Dowson (55th).

The Sevenoaks AC women’s team of Heather Fitzmaurice, Pauline Dalton and Cath Linney were beaten into third place by Dartford Road Runners and Canterbury Harriers, but retain the lead in the series by a narrow margin of 2 points.

In the individual competition, Dartford Harriers won both the men’s and women’s races through Andrew Pickett and Clare Reeves.

The next race will be at Oxleas Wood, Eltham on November 24th.

The SAC results were as follows:

Ov Pos

Lg Pos

Runner

Age

Time

Club

Rating

The full results are here.

Women dominated the November handicap, with Pauline and Heather leading the way. See report here.

A record turnout of more than 40 Sevenoaks AC runners helped to boost numbers and won the first match of the Kent Fitness League XC season on squelchy home soil on 20th October.

We have become accustomed to the women's team doing well, so it was not that surprising that they comfortably claimed second place, with Amy Wolstencroft joining Pauline Dalton and Heather Fitzmaurice in our scoring trio. But this time the men also excelled with all seven scorers, the majority of whom seem to have been christened Andrew, inside the top 50 men. David Lee lead them home in twelfth.

Amongst the SAC veterans, Heather was 3rd W35, Pauline 2nd W45, Debbie Munton 2nd W55 and Sylvia Lewis 2nd W60, while Chris Desmond was 2nd M50.

Not put off by the early showers, which held off for the entire event, the total field size of 467 was a record for the Knole fixture and within a handful of the League record. And there was also big field for the junior race, where SAC's Jane Waldron was first U13 girl and in fact first female.

The SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.