Tonbridge was the venue for our third over-35 athletics league competition of the season on Friday 15 July, writes Geoffrey Kitchener, and we had the benefit this time of numbers sufficient to field relay teams for both men's and women's competitions. The results are here.
The track programme began with 400m sprints, in which Laura Bestow led the way for our women's team with second place in the W35 A string race, and Courtney Harris in the B string achieved third place in a first outing over this distance. For the men, Zachary Ramsden, Duncan Cochrane, Oloff Van Zyl and Geoffrey Kitchener all contested the various age categories of the one-lap event, with a star performance by Oloff taking first M50 place in 59.0 seconds. This is a performance close to one earlier this month for which Oloff already ranks in the top dozen M50 athletes nationally for the current season, both of which eclipse Geoffrey's M50 club best from 20 years ago; Geoffrey's 79.2 seconds in the M60 race, however, ranks as a club M70 best performance, albeit showing a falling-off of a second per year in the last two decades.
The 1500m events followed on the track, in which the women's W35 A and B strings ran together, our representatives being Laura together with Suzy Claridge. Laura achieved third place in the A stream with 5 minutes 44.8 seconds and Suzy was second in the B stream with 5 minutes 57.8 seconds, taking 8 seconds off the W45 club best performance, which has stood for 17 years. Zachary, Duncan and Gary Walsh covered the men's 1500m, with the latter two athletes tracking each other for most of the race before Gary pulled away.
Field events included high jump, where Oloff had a timetable clash against the sprints, but Zachary managed to pull out a second place in the M50 group, with 1.21m. Also available was the hammer throw, in which Oloff took third place, stepping down to the M35 category which has a heavier weight specification than the M50s.
The evening finished off with 4 x 400m relays, for which our women were joined by Alzbeta Benn. Laura put us well into contention with a fast first lap and Courtney, Alzbeta and Suzy followed through to give us second place. The men's 4 x 400m relay kicked off with a blistering first lap by Oloff, although the follow-up by Geoffrey, Gary and Zachary was not able to sustain this advantage. Nevertheless, the fourth place of 4 minutes 48.3 seconds (split times 58.8(!), 80.3, 79.8 and 69.4) knocks over 23 seconds off the previous M50 club best performance, all runners being in no less than this age category.
Overall results for the meeting (and series) give the Sevenoaks women's team as fourth in division 2, but this is without contesting any field events. The men's team was also fourth at the meeting, but in the series overtook Bexley B, who failed to put in a team this time. Despite the overall results, this was a meeting enjoyed by all and showed quality through the setting of the various club best performances.
The next, and final, meeting is on Friday 29 July at Dartford, when the programme will be:
6.45 p.m. 100m women (W35A and B, 50, 60+)
[6.45 p.m. discus women and shot putt men, division 1]
7.15 p.m. 100m men (M35A and B, 50, 60+)
7.30 p.m. discus women (W35, 50, 60+), division 2
7.30 p.m. shot putt men (M35, 50, 60+), division 2
7.30 p.m. triple jump women (W35, 50, 60+),
7.45 p.m. 3000m women (W35A and B, 50, 60+)
8.10 p.m. 3000m men (M 35A and B, 50, 60+)
8.30 p.m. triple jump men (M35, 50, 60+)
8.30 p.m. 4 x 100m relay women, mixed ages
8.40 p.m. 4 x 100m relay men, mixed ages.
Please