The last meeting in the 2015 Kent SCVAC league athletics series was held at Gillingham on Friday 10 July, and Sevenoaks AC successfully held onto third place for the series in Division 2, whilst improving our standing as at the last competition. Our score of 53 points for the meeting was nearly twice that of our rivals, Swanley AC, and gave us third place for the evening as well as the series. This is the best which can be achieved without being promoted to Division 1, and is probably the most favourable outcome for our future competition.
First place in the M60 800m race was taken by James Graham, in 2 minutes 39.5 seconds, which should be a top 20 UK ranking performance. We also had first place in the M35 long jump, courtesy of Paul English, whose 5.15 metre jump was just short of his club best and looks to be a top 25 UK M40 ranking performance. He also took second places in the M35 100m race (12.5 seconds) and M35 discus (18.86m, a club best M40 performance). Third places were achieved by James in the M60 long jump and by Duncan Cochrane in the M50 100m, long jump and discus. All 800m runners – James, Duncan, Rob Carr and Geoff Vine – outpaced their Swanley counterparts, and Geoff’s 2 minutes 56.5 seconds in the M50 800m event appears to place him at 13th in the UK M65 rankings. The evening wound up with a 4 x 200m relay. Paul, having picked up an injury, was unable to provide his sprinter’s expertise for this event, and the remaining team members brought us home in fourth place.
Many thanks to Rob Carr for undertaking the team management in the absence of Geoffrey Kitchener on holiday. We have enjoyed the benefit of team contributions from a number of club members during this season: Rob Carr, Duncan Cochrane, Ron Denney, Paul English, James Graham, Geoffrey Kitchener, David Lobley, Maurice Marchant, David Simpson, Geoff Vine, Martin White. Their achievements include several club best performances, some of national note. Many of us have tried events new to us, sometimes surprising ourselves, and I think we have all had a good time!
I attach the Gillingham results.
Best wishes,
Geoffrey