Kent Cross Country League #1, Footscray Meadows (Sat. 12th Oct.)
Once again we hosted the first Kent League cross country fixture of the season at Foots Cray Meadows, writes Clem Dixon. A leak that has been spewing out water for two months and that Thames Water seem to be in no hurry to fix contributed to one section of the usually dry course being rather more challenging than usual. The weather behaved itself for most of the day but the senior men had to contend with a heavy downpour. A big thank you to all that helped with the preparations and to our wonderful marshals.
The senior men were pretty close to full strength with the four who took second team in the last race of last season being joined by Chris Loudon and Danny Kendall, the latter making his first cross country appearance since 2020 and his first race of any description other than parkrun since 2021, but he came back with a bang to be our fourth scorer. Bobby Babaker's (No 985) 5th place was his highest finish in the league to date, he was followed by Chris (No1008 8th), Tom Brooke (No 990 16th) and Danny (No 1005 19th), good enough for second place eight points ahead of Medway & Maidstone.
There was impressive packing behind these four with Ben Shearer and Dean Lacy also in the top 25 and our 12 to score team being bolstered by Kyle Hurst and Mattia Bernardi both making cross country debuts for the club: second in that competition too, and by a more comfortable margin, indeed we were closer on points to Tonbridge in first place than we were to Medway in third. You have to go back to 2013 to find the last time that we took second in both team competitions.
Additionally Danny and Ben were second and third in the M40 age category, with James Macdonald sixth (40th overall) auguring well for the Masters Championships in December. James ran the race in a Captain America face mask although the Kent officials are suspicious that it may actually have been Captain America running with James's number so a DQ is still a possibility!
In the earlier and shorter race for the over 70's Mick Ellsmore was an impressive 4th with Peter Hadley 12th, Peter might have placed higher if he hadn't missed the start!
In addition to Kyle and Mattia we welcomed four other new members to the fold: Elvi Nimali, Russell Buchanan, Andy Weir and John Barron helped take us to a total of 36 finishers, a new club record and comfortably more than any other club. In previous seasons our best showing has usually been this first fixture, let's hope that for once we can keep the momentum going for the next one: Tonbridge on 26th.
A relatively small but enthusiastic team of eleven senior women made their way to Footscray Meadows for the first cross country race of the season, reports Rose Baker. Phoebe Cooper (No 666) took a break from pushing Captain America round their training runs to lead the ladies team home, followed by strong runs by Julie Backley (No 657) and Hayley Newman (No 680) to close the team of 3 to score, securing 4th team place. Stephanie Dann, more used to race walking, made her debut for the team. Angela Ford, recently injured, completed a determined run and finished the course. Welcome back to Monica Whitefield after a season out. Also representing the club were Rose Baker, Christine Bond, Donna Martin, Jo Barber and Joanna Parkes.
There was a great turnout from the club’s younger athletes for the first cross country fixture of the season, reports Mark Newell.
Emer Tynan (No 381), who has recently joined Cambridge Harriers, demonstrated what an asset she will be to the club. Running side by side with the eventual winner for the majority of the race she eventually finished second in the under 17 women's race.
In the under 17 men's race Olly Buck (No 488) was in the mix for third place until the final sprint finish for the line, eventually being passed by to two other athletes to finish in 5th place.
Amelia Lawrence (No 422) has been a regular for the club since joining as an under 13. Now in the under 20 women's age group (first year) she used the strength gained from a recent half marathon debut to claim a fine 4th place in her race.
The under 13 girls got events underway with Charlotte Foster (No 21), in the end, having to settle for second place after a long tussle with the eventual winner of the race. Seren Yeatman (No 28 9th) and Esther Yeatman (No 27 14th) completed the scoring team of three to place an excellent second team of eight. Daisey O’Brien and Saskia Moon showed great improvement in their finish positions from the previous year. Ellie-Grace Upton-Lynch and Annique Lake-smith ran their first race for the club and supported each other during the race and eventually finished within a stride of each other.
Nine lined up at the start of the under 15 boy’s race and for all of them this was their first cross country race for the club. Herbie Tobin, Christian Hughes and Harry Carmody lead the team home to 6th from 10 in the team race. Only seventeen seconds separated our other nine finishers.
Things were very close between our first four athletes in the under 15 girl’s race. Sophia-Rose Bonnar 10th), Meredith Cummins (11th) and Celia Yeatman (13th) were the three to score for the team to place third of nine teams. Sophie Floyd is a newcomer to this otherwise experienced group of cross-country runners. Having competed mainly in sprint events and throws during the summer she was giving cross country running a go for the first time. Despite not really enjoying the experience she stuck with the task to finish in 39th place.
In the under 15 boy’s race, Alex Van Den Berg-Hows (No 295) was first to finish for the club in 23rd place. Monty Brown (No 289) just edged out Austin Richards (No 294) when finishing 32nd to Austin’s 35th. Joseph White was our final finisher in 39th place. The team was sixth from ten.
Chicago Marathon (Sun. 13th Oct.)
Nearly 50,000 runners took to the streets of Chicago on Sunday, with the highlight being a marathon World Record by Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) of 2:09:56. Two club members travelled over for the race; Tom Coghill who recorded a time of 3:31:20 and Theresa Massey (4:06:00).
Royal Parks Half-Marathon (Sun. 13th Oct.)
The 13.1-mile route takes in many of the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens. Amy Smith crossed the line in 828th position in 1:32:51, a seasons best.
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