Steve Murfet won the June handicap by a big margin. David Lobley continues to lead the series, albeit level on points with Andrew Mead. The details are here.

Heather Fitzmaurice was the star performer as eleven SAC runners contested the North Downs Run 30k on 24th June. Despite very hot conditions, Heather won the W45 category and took 15 minutes off her W45 30k club best in the process. She also becomes the British Masters W45 30k Champion as the BMAF competition was held within the race. For good measure, Jim Fitzmaurice added the BMAF M75 trophy to his extensive list of triumphs in the age group. John Witton led the Sevenoaks team home. The SAC results were:

The full results are here.

The third meeting of the Southern Counties Veterans Athletics league Kent Division took place at Bromley on Friday 15 June with mixed results, writes Geoffrey Kitchener.

The highlight was Darrell Smith's victory in the M50 1500m Div 2 race in a time of 4:37.4, slightly slower than his outing on the same track earlier that week, in which he achieved a top-twelve UK ranking for that age group. Divisions 1 and 2 were started together and Darrell held the lead for almost all the race, but with Monday's race still in his legs, was pipped by a Div 1 athlete in the closing stages; the times for both were exceptional.
 
This was our only outright first place on the night. We were unable to fill several field event slots in the men's events and so could only make fifth team position on the night, dropping to fourth place in the overall series. The women were, through other commitments and injury, not able to put forward a team at all, and so fall back from third to fourth place in the overall series.
 
Our other 1500m runners, Graham Dyer and Neil Haggertay, took fifth places in their (M35A & B) events. Also on the track was a 200m series, which they also undertook, joined by Duncan Cochrane and Geoffrey Kitchener in other age groups; the fastest was Graham, in 30.8 seconds. The final track event was the 2000m walk, with third place in the M50 race taken by Geoffrey under floodlights.
 
In the field events, the latter was our only high jumper, second-placed in the M60s. Our sole representative in the shot put was Duncan, fourth-placed in the M50s.  However, we had a full team for the three javelin events, best placed being David Simpson, third M60 with 15.33m. This should rank as sixth in the M75 UK rankings, save that the competition required use of the M60 heavier javelin (which requires more effort than the M75 version, so David does not necessarily get credited by the rankings for what the achievement actually amounts to).
 
Provisional results ("very draft") are here. These will be modified, but I think not in a way which will affect significantly our recorded placings. Final results will be here.
 
Our next meeting will be on Monday 2 July at Dartford Central Park Cranford Road, Dartford DA1 1JP and athletes are needed for a range of events - see details here.

Both the SAC women and men lie third in their divisions after the second match of the SCVAC track and field league on Friday 25th May. Highlights were Pauline Dalton's win in the W50 100m and Sylvia Lewis' victory in the W60 Javelin

The second meeting of the Southern Counties Veterans Athletics league Kent Division was a great success for Sevenoaks Athletics Club, adds Grazia Manzotti.
 
Let's start with the ladies. The ladies for the first time for SAC had a full team and we finished in second place! Jenny Austin was third in the 100m, with a fine time of 19.8 secs, and third in the 800m. Sylvia Lewis was first in the W60 javelin with a W65 club best performance of 6.97m (ranking her currently 10th in the UK), and, even though she ended up in the wrong race for the 100m, she was second M60 over that distance, and third in the W35B 800m in 4:20.5, another club best performance! Nicki Thompson was second in both shot put and the javelin, only 1cm short of the club best performance in the latter (and 22nd in this year's W40 UK rankings)! Pauline Dalton continues to set club bests. She was first in the W50 100m in 18.3 secs, no SAC W50 has been faster, and second in the 800m, taking nearly 11 seconds off the club's previous W50 best performance. And this was after a 5km race earlier in the day! The ladies team was also second in the relay and their time ranks as a club 4 x 100m W40 club best, so every member of the team achieved at least one club best performance. Amazing success for the ladies and they also said it was good fun!
 
The men did great, too, filling every event on the programme.
 
Neil Haggertay made his debut as fourth in the M35B 100m, and fifth in the 800m against tough competitors. He did also the shot put, against the background of last call for the relay, and was fourth – - in all, a total of 11 individual points for the club. Graham Dwyer also joined the team for the first time and was fourth in the M35A 100m, our fastest man on the night. He also achieved fourth place in the 800m and sixth in the javelin.
 
Geoffrey Kitchener was fourth in the M35 high jump, a tactical age category allocation to maximise the points of Rob Peers, who jumped in the M50 event, and secured second place with 1.25m. Geoffrey was also third in the M60 100m. Duncan Cochrane ran in the M50 100m for sixth place and also achieved fifth in the M50 800m and third in the M60 shot putt. Keith Dowson was second in the M50 shot putt and fourth in the javelin, worth 25th place in the current UK rankings. A relay team of Neil, Graham, Duncan and Geoffrey (pictured below) brought the baton home in fourth place, which was also the men's overall position on the night, although we are lying third in the series so far. So, this was a solid performance from the men to add to the ladies' success.
 
The next meet will be on 15th June in Friday 15th June at Bromley. There will be a call for teams nearer the date.

The full results are here.