The fifth meeting in the Southern Counties Veterans AC (Kent) league series was held at Ashford on 5th July - a sunny evening in perfect competing conditions. Unfortunately, a very depleted Sevenoaks team was further handicapped by the need to provide officials for the triple jump, and so we were only able to compete in five of the 14 events.
However, those five events provided some good performances. Rob Peers won the M35 pole vault with 2.40m, equalling his height for the 3 May meeting, which was a club M45 record and ranks him as 26th nationally.
The 3000m M60 race, in which we were represented by John Denyer, was possibly the most exciting race for M65 runners in the UK so far this year. It was dominated by three M65 athletes, exchanging leads and taking a very fast pace. John was just edged into second place, by less than a second, with a finishing time of 11 minutes 27.1 seconds, which places him fourth in the UK M65 rankings. Congratulations, John!
The M50 400m competition was won by Geoffrey Kitchener, who overhauled the front runner along the finishing straight for a time of 66.6 seconds, ranking 16th nationally. The team was completed by David Simpson, with third place in the M50 pole vault (where he currently lies sixth in the national rankings) and fifth place in the M60 hammer.
Triple jump officiating was provided by John Denyer and Geoffrey Kitchener, which gave no opportunities for taking on further competitive events and Sevenoaks AC wound up in fifth place on the night, although still holding onto our fourth place in Division 2.
I attach the results. The next meeting is on Monday 15 July at Dartford. This is the final meeting in this season’s series, and it would be good to aim for a sparkling finish! The events are 100m, 800m, long jump, discus and medley relay. I shall be glad to hear from anyone who wishes to attend, whether as part of the team or a guest.
Geoffrey
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