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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+).

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