KFL 2024-25 - Match 2

pic of team at Oxleas

The second race in the Kent Fitness League 2024/25 season took place in Eltham on Sunday Nov 24th, writes Jim Knight. 535 runners from 18 Kent Athletics Clubs, including a team of 33 from Sevenoaks, tackled the hilly course through Oxleas Woods in mild but windy conditions.

After winning the first race in Swanley on Nov 10th, Sevenoaks ladies were keen to stay ahead of Petts Wood Runners – who fielded a massive team of 116 runners in Eltham including 51 women (vs Sevenoaks team of 14 women).

Sevenoaks’ star runner Andrea Berquez led throughout the race to secure a comfortable win in 33 minutes 52 seconds – two minutes faster than last year and over 2 minutes clear of 2nd placed Sarah Shepheard of Paddock Wood AC.

The other scoring team members all ran brilliantly - Nicola Glover (7th), Cath Linney (16th), Joanna Rodda (17th), and Vanessa Gilmartin (24th) – to score a comfortable win over Canterbury Harriers in 2nd position.

In the men’s race, Jamie Philip ran well to finish 11th (2nd M45) just ahead of 20-year-old Jake Mears who placed 16th in his first KFL race for the club.

The other members of the scoring team were Guillaume Nineven (26th), Ed Saunders (30th), William Palmer (52nd), Steven Hough (55th), Paul Fanti (60th) and Keith Dowson (76th & 1st M60).

Outside the scoring teams there were other great performances with Sally Shewell returning from injury to win the W65 category, and in M70 Jeremy Winter and Simon Hallpike were placed 2nd and 3rd.

Sevenoaks AC were 2nd in the men’s team race, just behind Medway & Maidstone AC, but the combined team recorded their first win for a year and now lead the series just ahead of Petts Wood Runners and Paddock Wood AC.

The SAC results were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Bib	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Score	Rtg	#
11	11	894	Jamie Philip	47	31:44	Sevenoaks AC	V40:1	97.16	5
16	16	1140	Jake Mears	20	32:09	Sevenoaks AC	M1	95.74	Debut
26	26	891	Guillaume Nineven	39	32:54	Sevenoaks AC	M2	92.90	17
30	30	899	Edmund Saunders	42	33:30	Sevenoaks AC	V40:2	91.76	28
35	1	1077	Andrea Berquez	39	33:52	Sevenoaks AC	V35	100.00	14
53	52	893	William Palmer	52	34:59	Sevenoaks AC	V50:1	85.51	11
56	55	873	Steven Hough	51	35:10	Sevenoaks AC	V50:2	84.66	3
61	60	860	Paul Fanti	51	35:38	Sevenoaks AC	M3	83.24	4
70	68	866	Luke Green	33	36:11	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	80.97	3
74	72	874	Andrew Hutchinson	45	36:20	Sevenoaks AC	NSBLS	79.83	25
78	76	857	Keith Dowson	61	36:44	Sevenoaks AC	V60	78.69	19
91	87	886	Andrew Monk	48	37:36	Sevenoaks AC	NS	75.57	12
94	90	1141	Paul Shelley	50	37:47	Sevenoaks AC	NS	74.72	10
113	7	864	Nicola Glover	36	38:38	Sevenoaks AC	F1	96.72	17
116	109	907	Daniel Witt	49	38:42	Sevenoaks AC	NS	69.32	74
129	118	890	Sebastian Naughton	50	39:16	Sevenoaks AC	NS	66.76	19
141	126	850	Steve Carter	45	40:08	Sevenoaks AC	NS	64.49	Debut
143	16	880	Catherine Linney	55	40:12	Sevenoaks AC	V55	91.80	51
146	17	896	Joanne Rodda	48	40:19	Sevenoaks AC	V45	91.26	7
150	133	1081	Anthony Waldron	57	40:30	Sevenoaks AC	NS	62.50	38
160	143	846	James Baker	60	40:45	Sevenoaks AC	NS	59.66	31
162	145	875	David Killpack	39	40:47	Sevenoaks AC	NS	59.09	12
169	150	844	Brian Allen	52	40:57	Sevenoaks AC	NS	57.67	8
172	153	869	Rob Hadden	56	41:10	Sevenoaks AC	NS	56.82	2
188	24	863	Vanessa Gilmartin	49	41:39	Sevenoaks AC	F2	87.43	35
191	167	847	Adam Bates	41	41:48	Sevenoaks AC	NS	52.84	8
198	172	859	Andrew Evans	54	42:02	Sevenoaks AC	NS	51.42	59
214	31	848	Elizabeth Bull	37	42:53	Sevenoaks AC	NS	83.61	2
265	223	906	Jeremy Winter	70	45:35	Sevenoaks AC	NS	36.93	11
286	235	871	Simon Hallpike	71	46:25	Sevenoaks AC	NS	33.52	63
303	59	845	Clare Ambrose	56	47:10	Sevenoaks AC	NS	68.31	2
416	115	900	Sarah Shewell	65	51:31	Sevenoaks AC	NS	37.70	129
489	335	903	Richard Thomas	67	58:19	Sevenoaks AC	NS	5.11	Debut

The full results are here.

The next race in the series will take place in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, on December 1st when SAC will have the difficult task of organising the race and also fielding a strong team of runners. The race starts at 9 am.

pic of start at Oxleas

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+).

KFL 2024-25 - Match 2 - Oxleas Wood