KFL 2023/24 Match 5 - Betteshanger Park, Deal

Team at Deal

The 5th race in the 2023/24 Kent Fitness League series took place in Betteshanger Park, Deal on Sunday January 14th, writes Jim Knight. 449 runners, including 28 who had made the long journey from Sevenoaks raced on the 5-mile course involving two laps of the perimeter of the Country Park.

The course is flat and flat, favouring road and track runners. The race was won by Alexander Donnelly from Maidstone & Medway AC, with the women’s race won by Charlotte Johnson on Maidstone Harriers.

Another great performance by Sevenoaks women saw them placed 3^rd in the team race and they remain in 2^nd place in the series just behind Canterbury Harriers. Star performers were Andrea Berquez (6^th), Joanna Rodda (11^th & 2^nd W45) and Nicola Glover (12^th). The remaining members of the scoring team were Catherine Linney (17^th& 4^th W50) and Pauline Dalton (62nd). There was another great performance by Bridget Weekes who was 2nd W65.

In the men’s race, the Sevenoaks team was weakened by the absence of some key runners but still secured 5^th place. The team was led home by Guillaume Nineven (19^th) closely followed by Ed Saunders (28^th) and Andrew Hutchinson (34^th). There were great runs by Darius Sarshar (50^th) and 19 year-old Harvey Taylor (73^rd) . The other scoring members were Seb Naughton (85^th), James Baker (94^th) and Jonathan Marsh (133^rd).

The full SAC results were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Bib	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Score	Rtg	#
18	18	879	Guillaume Nineven	38	31:47	Sevenoaks AC	M1	94.10	15
28	28	887	Edmund Saunders	41	32:23	Sevenoaks AC	V40:1	90.62	26
34	34	858	Andrew Hutchinson	44	32:52	Sevenoaks AC	V40:2	88.54	23
50	50	886	Darius Sarshar	54	34:01	Sevenoaks AC	V50:1	82.99	15
67	6	836	Andrea Berquez	38	35:12	Sevenoaks AC	V35	96.89	10
81	73	893	Harvey Taylor	19	35:51	Sevenoaks AC	M2	75.00	13
85	11	1022	Joanne Rodda	47	36:05	Sevenoaks AC	V45	93.79	4
88	12	854	Nicola Glover	36	36:17	Sevenoaks AC	F1	93.17	13
98	85	878	Sebastian Naughton	49	36:50	Sevenoaks AC	M3	70.83	15
109	94	834	James Baker	59	37:38	Sevenoaks AC	V50:2	67.71	29
123	17	865	Catherine Linney	54	38:17	Sevenoaks AC	F2	90.06	47
130	110	874	Andrew Monk	47	38:46	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	62.15	9
133	113	871	Michael McCarthy	58	38:49	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	61.11	28
139	116	832	Andrew Ashlee	54	39:06	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	60.07	32
147	123	831	Brian Allen	52	39:37	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	57.64	5
158	133	868	Jonathan Marsh	64	39:58	Sevenoaks AC	V60	54.17	9
159	134	900	Daniel Witt	48	39:58	Sevenoaks AC	NS	53.82	70
160	135	859	David Killpack	38	40:00	Sevenoaks AC	NS	53.47	8
166	138	849	Graham Dwyer	51	40:15	Sevenoaks AC	NS	52.43	24
174	142	835	Adam Bates	40	40:41	Sevenoaks AC	NS	51.04	5
184	151	862	Leonard Lai King	44	41:12	Sevenoaks AC	NS	47.92	15
192	157	850	Andrew Evans	53	41:36	Sevenoaks AC	NS	45.83	57
253	58	883	Sarah Philpott	45	43:58	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	64.60	5
264	62	844	Pauline Dalton	59	44:35	Sevenoaks AC	V55	62.11	63
294	73	898	Bridgit Weekes	65	46:01	Sevenoaks AC	NS	55.28	24
298	223	867	Simon Mann	43	46:12	Sevenoaks AC	NS	22.92	3
346	102	843	Becca Crowe	63	49:35	Sevenoaks AC	NS	37.27	15
431	147	1076	Maria Ashlee	52	1:01:36	Sevenoaks AC	NS	9.32	5

The men’s team is now in 4th place in the series, the women in 2nd place and the combined team in 3rd place. The runners now have a 3 week rest before the 6^th race in the series in AllHallows near Rochester on February 4^th. The full results are here.

The Kent Fitness League is a series of cross-country races between the 18 registered Athletics Clubs in Kent. Any number of club members can compete, but 13 are needed to score in the team competition – 8 men (of whom one must be aged 60+, two must be 50+ and two 40+) and 5 women (of whom one must be aged 55+ one 45+ and one 35+).