Despite some key runners having to drop out before the races, Sevenoaks AC fielded full teams in both the M60 and M40 categories at a very windy Kent County Masters Cross Country Championships at Sparrows Den, West Wickham on Saturday 5th December.
But the first race of the day was the M50 event over about 9k, in which Chris Desmond and John Stevens were contesting the individual places without their usual teammate Keith Dowson, with whom they've been in or close to the medals in recent years. Both men ran well in a very high quality race with Chris finishing 12th and John 32nd. Ben Reynolds of Tonbridge AC won the race by over a minute and half.
The M60 race was run together with all three women's categories and the M70+ group. The shorter course was described as 5,430 metres on the course map but in practice seemed shy of 3 miles at 4.75k. Again standards were very high, so that Kent Fitness XC League M60 leader James Graham was seventh despite running very well. Backed up by Geoff Vine in 26th and Simon Hallpike in 27th, the M60 Sevenoaks AC team came up just short of the medals in fourth. In a tight finish, Jeremy Carnell of Cambridge Harriers won the race by one second from John Harley of Tonbridge.
There were no team awards for the M70+ group in which SAC was represented by Ron Denney and M80 Richard Pitcairn-Knowles. Ron was our first finisher in that category in 5th place with RPK seventh.
The final race of the day featured the M40s over the same course as the M50s and was again a top class race. Like the M50 race, the winner, Christopher Greenwood of Kent AC, was over one and a half minutes clear. Andrew Mead was our leading runner in 25th with Dan Witt 35th, followed closely by Nick Humphrey-Taylor 40th with Tony Waldron 64th. A strong performance on the day for tenth team.
The full results are here.
