The County Champs was again held at the County showground in Detling. The weather was good and the course was surprisingly dry considering the amount of rain fall in the past week. Initially it was a worry that we may not be able to get 12 people running as injury (Jermaine and Lenny) and sickness (Lee Hine) threatened our chances. However in the end we rallied and managed to get 15 people out. Our target before hand was to try a sneak a medal in the 6 to score, and make the top 3 teams in the 12 to score event. We were very much surprised by the standard of this years competition, with Medway and Blackheath both having 3 in the top ten and Tonbridge two in the top ten. These three ran away with the Medals and left us 4th in both scoring events.

I must say that it was a great team effort but would like to highlight Richard Munn, who ran with an Achilles injury. We also had a number of athletes who were ill over the Christmas period and battled all the way most notably Luke Armitage. The first man home for Kent AC was James Connor. Michael Claff had a welcome return to form to finish 14th and Andrew Dunwoody had a strong run and a battle to the end with Julian Rendal of Tonbridge to finish 20th. Phil Sanders in his rookie season on the country made an impressive debut at this event to finish in 35th position. David Childs made up the 6 man team in 38th position. Luke Armitage and Pablo Lazo were then 48th and 49th, respectively with Jules Gevers coming home in 56th. Battling it out for 10th and 11th positions were Burnie Hutchinson 98th and Mick Barlow 99th (good packing lads!), with Michael Kizito completing the 12 man team in 127 position. Other finishers were Julian Spencer-Wood 131, Adam Morton 142 and Ted Hadlow in 177th.

We also completed teams in the junior and u17 mens races. Some good runs there, so congrats to all who competed.

JC