Simon Rowe won the second race of the 2024 handicap series over seven miles by over three minutes from Andrew Mead on Sunday 11th February.

Nicola Glover was the fastest woman in third and David Hale the fastest overall in seventh. Five runners beat their handicaps on the day.

The next race is on Sunday 10th March at 08:30 from the track.

The details are here.

The penultimate race of this year’s Kent Fitness League took place in Allhallows Holiday Park near Rochester on Sunday February 4th.

This year’s Kent Fitness League has been hard fought between the leading contenders, Sevenoaks AC, Petts Wood Runners, Canterbury Harriers, Maidstone & Medway AC, Paddock Wood AC and Dartford Harriers, with record numbers of competitors.

The series comprises 7 gruelling cross-country races starting in Swanley in October, and touring the county with races in Knole Park, Eltham, Minnis Bay, Deal, Allhallows Park, and finishing in 3 weeks’ time in Rough Common on February 25th.

The women’s team competition has been particularly close, with Sevenoaks AC (champions in 2020, 21, and 2022) trying to catch last year’s champions, Canterbury Harriers, and stay ahead of Paddock Wood AC. The Sevenoaks team was reduced to 22 runners through injuries to several key runners and the team feared that they might not have enough women for a full scoring team.

On a wet and windy day the 447 runners set off on 6 mile two-lap course. From the start field, they ran down to the beach for a long technical section along the shoreline where they faced gravel, mud, seaweed and ditches. Then back up to the start field to do it all again.

Once again, Sevenoaks’ Andrea Berquez ran brilliantly to finish in 2nd place, closely followed by Nicola Glover (6th), Caroline Fenwick (9th), and Cath Linney (11th). The club’s top W55 runners were absent through injury, but 63 year old Becca Crowe ran the race of her life, achieving a rating 10 percentage points higher than she had previously achieved in KFL, coming home in 78th position. This pulled the women’s team up by 3 places to 2nd place on the day, and better still, by helping the SAC women to finished above Paddock Wood AC ensures that Sevenoaks women will finish in 2nd place in the league, irrespective of the results of the final race in 3 weeks’ time.

The SAC men’s team was also lacking several runners through injury, but once again, Guillaume Nineven ran well to finish in 17th place. The other scoring members of the men’s team were Stephen Hough (52nd in his debut race), Harvey Taylor (62nd), Seb Naughton (79th), James Baker (84th), David Kilpack (86th ), and Andrew Monk (91st).

The men’s team came 5th on the day and remain in 5th place in the series. The combined team came 5th on the day and remain in 4th place in the series. The full SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

Sylvia Lewis led all the way to win the January handicap race by three minutes.

David Hale in second place was the fastest overall with third-placed Sam Znetyniak the fastest scoring woman - although non-scoring Suzy Claridge was slightly faster.

The next race, over the seven mile course, is on Sunday 11th February, 08:30 from the track as usual.

All the details are here.

The 5th race in the 2023/24 Kent Fitness League series took place in Betteshanger Park, Deal on Sunday January 14th, writes Jim Knight. 449 runners, including 28 who had made the long journey from Sevenoaks raced on the 5-mile course involving two laps of the perimeter of the Country Park.

The course is flat and flat, favouring road and track runners. The race was won by Alexander Donnelly from Maidstone & Medway AC, with the women’s race won by Charlotte Johnson on Maidstone Harriers.

Another great performance by Sevenoaks women saw them placed 3^rd in the team race and they remain in 2^nd place in the series just behind Canterbury Harriers. Star performers were Andrea Berquez (6^th), Joanna Rodda (11^th & 2^nd W45) and Nicola Glover (12^th). The remaining members of the scoring team were Catherine Linney (17^th & 4^th W50) and Pauline Dalton (62nd). There was another great performance by Bridget Weekes who was 2nd W65.

In the men’s race, the Sevenoaks team was weakened by the absence of some key runners but still secured 5^th place. The team was led home by Guillaume Nineven (19^th) closely followed by Ed Saunders (28^th ) and Andrew Hutchinson (34^th). There were great runs by Darius Sarshar (50^th) and 19 year-old Harvey Taylor (73^rd) . The other scoring members were Seb Naughton (85^th), James Baker (94^th) and Jonathan Marsh (133^rd).

The full SAC results were:

The men’s team is now in 4th place in the series, the women in 2nd place and the combined team in 3rd place. The runners now have a 3 week rest before the 6^th race in the series in AllHallows near Rochester on February 4^th. The full results are here.

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+).