The A team also achieved their pre-season aim of mid-table obscurity by finishing in 5th place of Div 1 of the British League at Copthal Stadium on Saturday. This should not obscure the wonderful achievement in beating any of the 3 teams below them (including Harrow last year's Div 2 Champions). A wonderful effort. The sprinters and jumpers led the way on Saturday with great Wins by Conrad, Jeffrey and Matt, However a mention should be made of the ever-present throwers who have perservered against the odds to score regular useful points all season. Next year it looks like we will be making a few trips up north, as the newcomers to Div 1 will be Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Gateshead.

Full Report:
A somewhat relaxed approach seemed to be the mood on the day as we set about the final match of the season knowing that our new status in the second tier of British athletics was secure. Unfortunately this was all too evident as too many of the team were late for the mini van at Ladywell which entailed much hanging around for the others.

However, we had a pretty solid team helped by Jeffrey Lawal Balogun being available and Conrad Williams showing what a great team man he can be by turning out (and volunteering for extra events) despite running at Crystal Palace Grand Prix the night before and having to overcome the disappointment of missing out on World championship selection in the 4 x 400mtr relay because of an outrageously unjust and biased selection decision!

A blazing hot day made all distance events a torture and the shorter events had to cope with a three mtr per sec headwind, which again caused slower times. The joint match with the Premiership simply didn’t have enough officials and quickly ran thirty minutes late into the bargain.

However, ‘man of the match’ Matthew Burton overcame these difficulties to produce a long jump of 7.00m. a PB and the third best ever by a Kent AC athlete and then cruised to a comfortable win in the triple jump with a 15.00 mtr effort despite the tender age of nineteen.

Conrad ran a controlled 400m race and just when the Harrow athlete thought he had a chance, Conrad changed up a gear and won comfortably in 46.85sec despite the windy conditions. He then cruised the ‘B’ 100m and looked top drawer in both relays to demonstrate his great attitude. Jeffrey also looked relaxed and won the ‘A’ string 200m comfortably to go with his 2nd place in the 100m. Feidhlim Kelly, a month ago mentioned that he was rather portly, but making the trip over from Ireland, a slim Feidhlim produced an excellent tactical run to take second place in the ‘A’ string 800m as well as running a solid leg in the 4 x 400m, justifying the trip over as did Paul Pollock (taking his uncle duties seriously) who took a very positive attitude in tackling the 1500m and nearly winning against a top class race despite having just had two weeks off, demonstrating just how good an athlete he could be.

The steeplechasers were held over 30 minutes out in the baking sun, as the 100mtr heats ran overtime. Obviously the heat took its toll and certainly it wasn’t a day for ‘doubling up’ so James and Paul had to dig very deep in the 5000m later on - both great servants to the cause.

The first track event had got us off to a good start as Shaun Mulligan was only just outside a season’s best despite the strong headwind down the final straight. He also filled in on the sprint hurdles and the triple jump, again showing what good team men Kent AC have! Antoni Davis Phillip then showed great fighting spirit to clinch third place in the ‘B’ race, despite an outside lane draw, as he fought back down the home straight. It was great to see Kevin Gray back in Kent Ac colours and despite no training and a four hour journey on the M1 he still managed 3.40m in the pole vault but Antoni’s seized back meant that we didn’t have a ‘B’ string.

Youngsters Nuka Kpoturu and Matthew Wepke both produced respective PBs of 1.80m in the high jump and 41.32m in the javelin. Great throwing in the discus by Alan Porter and Jay Thomas produced two throws over 40m for the first time in the club’s history and they went on to gain vital points in the other throws to show how vital they are to the team.

Our 4 x 100mtr relay boys were about to break the club record when the final leg ran out of the box before collecting the baton (losing 16 points!!) The team looked good and with Matthew Wepke running a superb first leg there may be a little tweaking to do. Finally the 4 x 400mtr team did the business with a third place despite Conrad having just too much to do on the final leg.

Despite over twenty points being thrown away and it being a ‘messy day’ we had four PBs and should have been fourth comfortably, instead of seventh on the day. We had clearly shown that we could live at this new level and by finishing fifth in the table we were the first team for five years to survive after having been promoted as runners up. It ranks us thirteenth track and field club in the UK and maintaining our divisional status is a magnificent team effort all round and something we can justifiably be proud of. (Ken was planning for 2008 the next day after the match so who knows next year?)