Captains Report:
A great day of athletics was had in sunny Dartford on Sunday. Kent AC won a match in the Southern Athletics League for the first ever time, dominating the fixture to beat Hercules Wimbledon into second place.
Official man/women-of-the-match awards are given to the 6 highest ranked performances on the day, several Kent AC athletes featured:
– Our 100m guys Jonathan Browne (10.86) and Nathan Brown (10.94) showed their class getting the 2 top ranked men’s performances of the day.
– Emma-Louise Wagstaff got a woman-of-the-match performance for her excellent 60.7 to get 2nd in the 400m.
– Tom Mower ran a superb 8.54 in the 3,000m for a man-of-the-match award.
– Sarah Hanley ran a remarkable 5,000m debut in 18.45 for a woman-of-the-match, very well deserved for a solo run in the heat of the afternoon with a hangover (and no water).
– Legendary Kent AC multi-eventers Rawlston Morian and Shaun Mulligan were surely men-of-the-match, doing 6 events each, coming first or second in every one (and they also did the relays).
Several athletes were competing for the first time (or the first time for a long time) or achieved personal bests:
– Fifteen year old Jonathan Fletcher came second in the B string 200m in 26.02.
– Penelope Teoh ran a very impressive 19.25 in the 5,000m, her first ever track race.
– John Cox won the B string 800m.
– Rowan Crichton came 2nd in the steeplechase, returning to the event for the first time for 10 years .
– Shamariah Notice came 2nd in the 100m and 200m and ran an excellent final relay leg.
Kent AC had people in almost every event. So many people showed great willing, talent and versatility to score loads of points for the team:
– Kathy Sharpe won the 800m B string and came third in the Javelin and Long Jump
– Kehinde Dauda won the B string 400mH, 110mH and triple jump.
– Isabel Bradley won the 1,500m and triple jump
– Lydia Blackmore won the 800m, high jump and came 2nd in the B string 200m
– Ellie Brown won the B string high jump and came second in the B string triple jump
– Tracey Griffiths scored highly in the Javelin, Shot and Discus.
– Joe Appiah, Ethelbert Metzger, Courtney Green, Anthony Johnson, Glenn Gray and Neil Phillips all won events
By the time we got to the 4* 400m relays there weren’t many athletes left standing. With the overall match win in the bag we’d agreed to take things relatively easily, but Kent AC competitive spirit took over and there were two exciting races:
– Sarah, Victoria, Lydia and Isabel soon realised that victory was in their reach and the pace quickened, Lydia opening up a gap and Isabel fought hard on the anchor leg to secure a narrow win
– Calum, Rowan, Rawlston and Shaun couldn’t resist racing hard against a strong team from another match, Shaun almost chasing them down in an exciting finish.