Sevenoaks AC came away with five medals from the Kent AA Veterans Cross Country Championships in bright, still but cold conditions at Sparrows Den, West Wickham on Saturday 6th December. James Graham bagged two of the medals with individual bronze in the M60 event while leading John Denyer and Geoff Kitchener to team silver.
And SAC's sole female competitor at the championships, Sally Shewell, finished with the bronze medal against a strong field in the W55 event.
The first race of the day, over a testing ten kilometre course, was for the M50s - men aged 50 to 59. Chris Desmond, Keith Dowson and John Stevens, last year's bronze medallists, were supported by Ted Scott, Duncan Cochrane and Richard Thomas . Chris and Keith were well to the fore from the off as they worked hard to stay in touch with the leaders in a competitive race, while the other SAC runners scrapped for places further down the field. The winner was Ben Reynolds of Tonbridge AC, as Chris finished eighth, Keith twelfth and John thirty-first, leaving Sevenoaks agonisingly four points short of the bronze medals in fourth place. Ted Scott was forty-fifth, Duncan Cochrane forty-seventh and Richard Thomas sixty-second.
Last year, Sevenoaks' M60 - men aged 60 to 69 - team were only one point off the bronze medals, but with Lyndon Collins and Geoff Vine replaced by James Graham and John Denyer, they made no mistake this year with second place. James led them home in third, followed by John in eleventh and Geoff twenty-fifth over the five kilometre version of the course. Simon Hallpike also ran finishing in thirty-second place as Alan Newman of Paddock Wood AC took gold. That race was run together with all the women's races, including the W55 - women aged 55 to 64 - in which Sally Shewell had an excellent run to take that third place in a race won by Barbara Wenman of Canterbury Harriers.
The final race of the day was for the M40 men, aged 40 to 49. Sevenoaks had just two runners in this event on the day, Andrew Mead and Martin White. Andrew finished thirty-second, with Martin seventy-first, as the race was won by Chris Greenwood of Kent AC.
The Sevenoaks AC results were:
3 269 Sarah Shewell 00:25:09 Female W55 Sevenoaks AC
3 122 James Graham 00:21:06 Male M60 Sevenoaks AC
11 121 John Denyer 00:22:39 Male M65 Sevenoaks AC
25 124 Geoffrey Kitchener 00:24:56 Male M65 Sevenoaks AC
32 123 Simon Hallpike 00:26:09 Male M60 Sevenoaks AC
8 60 Christopher Desmond 00:36:24 Male M50 Sevenoaks AC
12 61 Keith Dowson 00:36:50 Male M50 Sevenoaks AC
31 63 John Stevens 00:40:00 Male M50 Sevenoaks AC
45 62 John Scott 00:42:52 Male M55 Sevenoaks AC
47 59 Duncan Cochrane 00:43:21 Male M55 Sevenoaks AC
62 64 Richard Thomas 00:52:27 Male M55 Sevenoaks AC
32 357 Andrew Mead 00:37:59 Male M45 Sevenoaks AC
71 359 Martin White 00:49:07 Male M45 Sevenoaks AC
The full results are here.