Venerable Veterans and Valencia
96
Venerable Veterans and Valencia
<<First Name>>, Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 03/12/23<!–
KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
26 November 2023
This weekend saw Kent AC represented locally in the chilly fields of Dartford, woody Lesnes Abbey, well-trodden Battersea Park and blistering Belfast. Some even ventured internationally to sunny Valencia where they lined up alongside the best in the world who battled the clock for those super-fast Olympic qualifying times.
As a reminder from last week’s Newsletter, some of the races that we enter require EA memberships for all runners. Please ensure that your EA membership is paid up if you intend to run for the club, particularly in national or regional championships, as it’s an administrative hassle for our team managers to check, and it may mean you miss out on entry deadlines if you’re not fully paid up.
VETS’ VENERABLE VALUE
Putting out a strong performance for Kent AC this weekend were our vets who braved (almost) sub-zero temperatures to compete in the Kent Veterans Cross Country Championship in Dartford.
Here are some words from Lin with the women’s race report:
Kent ladies’ super vets had a blazing day in freezing Dartford with athletes across V35, V45 and V55 age categories, with some down-aging to make sure we had full teams.
The whole team ran brilliantly in a very competitive event. Our V35s were grouped well at the front of the field with Lin Skinner setting a good pace in the first lap. Victoria Cartwright moved into lead scorer for Kent after that, then Nesrin Sabanci came through strongly into 2nd scorer position. The team were so well grouped that as we crossed the line even the official acknowledged, “Well that team has the gold!” Individually it was silver for Victoria, bronze for Nesrin and having Lin (downaged from V45) in 4th meant that it was team gold and Kent Champions for our V35 team. Hooray!
In the V45 category Suzanne Spalding brought the team in with Nicola Cartlidge close behind and followed swiftly by Anne Hepple. This was a very competitive age category and as this group had already provided a runner to form a full team for the V35s, they did incredibly well, running with fantastic Kent spirit.
Our V55 ladies ran with great heart, taking the bronze medal – Kate Williams was first home, followed by Ronnie Haydon-Jones and with Zoe Gaffen taking the final team spot. Annabelle was just behind, running in the V55s ready to complete the team if needed – fantastic team spirit.
Overall this was a strong performance for our lady vets, especially given that quite a few of our runners are currently overseas for Valencia or other sporting endeavors. Huge kudos to Victoria Cartright for a standout performance leading the ladies home after a difficult journey to the event on her bike, arriving with not much time to spare before the start. What a run!’
With such strong individual and team performances from the women’s vets, could the men meet the bar? Find out in the men’s race report from Jules:
‘Saturday 2nd December saw the annual vets visit to the Malt Shovel Pub in Dartford combined with the county vets XC champs. In the men’s races we had 23 finishers, one of our highest ever. With a record medal haul, with gold, gold and bronze in the 3 team categories. It was quality AND quantity.
There was a bit of controversy when a race official challenged the Kent AC team as “surely being too young to run at the vets”. We revealed the club secret of the youth giving powers of the Hilly Fields fartlek session and they relented. (OK – I made this bit up).
Back to reality …
First race of the day saw Phil Sanders and Will Pitt claim silver and bronze in the individual VM50s. With Tom Sloan and Michael McCartney we won Kent AC’s VM50 FIRST EVER team title in this event, ahead of Folkestone RAC and Medway & Maidstone AC. There was strong support from Jules Gevers, Luke Armitage, Paul McCrone.
Next up was the VM60s, Chris Lydon took bronze, with Roger Beardsworth and John Barron claiming team bronze, equal on points as 2nd place Tonbridge, and just 22 points behind winners, Tunbridge Wells Harriers. The team had excellent backup support from Bernie Hutchinson.
Julian Spencer-Wood took silver in the MV70s, followed by Danny Mackay.
The MV40s failed to disappoint, with a magnificent team gold, Kent AC’s 12th win on the trot. Kent AC have won every year since 2005, except for silver in 2008 & 2010. Jonathan Tipper ran superbly for individual gold. Ben Hope, Barny Day and Pete Lighting completing the winning team.
Kent AC had strong backup from Sam Evans, Che Compton, Chris Mullin, Alex Harris, Colin Holmes and Steve Jones.
A superb club performance all round, in the V40s we had 8 in the top 18, V50s 3 in the top 5 and V60s 2 in the top 7. Not quite as good as 2016, when we had 8 in the top 16. All goes to show that Kent AC are better at packing than Simon Calder.’
Excellent read. See below for some pictures of those gritty runners.
The individual results are here: Kent Vets Cross Country Championships [event] (stuweb.co.uk)
The full results will be posted here in due course: Results for 2023 (kcaa.org.uk)
The Men’s 40 team struck gold!
All smiles for the M50s.
Medals galore for Vic, Nesrin and Elinor
Chris, John and Roger with the M60 bronze.
RACES NEAR AND FAR
It wasn’t all grass, fallen leaves and Kentish mud. Some raced further afield (and not so).
Starting off we have the Valencia Marathon. With a staggering 28 men and 31 women achieving the Olympics qualifying time in this year’s race, Valencia looks to be setting itself up nicely as a hub for fast racing.
There were some excellent runs from many and to name but a few we have results from Michael Longley with a 2:46:18 debut, Lara Bromilow smashing her pb by 4 minutes with 2:47:44, Jeremias Kempke pbing 2:48:23, Josh Lennard Jones reducing his time by an amazing 8 minutes with 2:51:36, Gian Valentini breaking 3 hours in 2:56:11, Matt Speed pacing through Amy White in 2:58:17, Teresa Murphy in 3:06:39, Victoria Buck with 3:11:38, Annie Birch with a fantastic 2:40:19 pb, Russ Bentley in 2:23:27, Luke Rowland just outside his pb with 2:35:16 and completing his Sunday long run somewhere other than Dulwich Park Chris Busaileh in 2:34:54. A special shout out must also be made for previous Kent AC Surrey Leaguer Phil Sesemann who ran agonisingly just outside the OQT with an astonishing 2:08:49 PB.
It was all sunshine for Amy and Matt who both broke 3 hours.
Mike still smiling but did it last?
Other notable races for the weekend include:
Coach Ian Ellwood who came 3rd in the Ray Marshall Memorial 5 miler.
Newcomer Kurt Wilkinson made his Kent debut with a brilliant 10k PB of 31:42 in Battersea. It must be Kent AC magic (on top of a committed training schedule on his part).
Paul Pollock finishing 1st in Belfast with a whopping 30:00 10k.
Ian happy with his 3rd place mug just in time for mulled wine!
Paul standing tall with a 1st
RACE DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
A summary of dates for your diary:
December
2 – Kent County Vets XC – Dartford (Age group xc champs)
9 – SEAA Masters CC Champs – Horspath, Oxford
9 – Kent AC Christmas Party – BUY YOUR TICKETS!
16 – South of the Thames Senior – Lloyd Park (Senior XC champs)
2024
January
6 – Kent County XC – Brands Hatch
13 – Surrey League XC – Wimbledon Common
27 – Southern XC champs – BPP
February
10 – Surrey League XC – TBD
24 – National XC Champs – Weston Park, Shropshire
March
16 – British Masters XC Champs – Corwen, N Wales
April
TBD – Southern Road Relays – TBD
TBD – National Road Relays – Sutton Coldfield
12 LANES OF CHRISTMAS
For those of you wanting to enjoy some reps at Ladywell Arena over the festive period, please make note of the below dates for Kent AC hire.
Thursday 21st December – As usual
Sunday 24th December – No booking
Tuesday 26th December – No booking
Thursday 28th December – As usual
Sunday 31st December – No booking
2024
Tuesday 2nd January – As usual
ADMIN ON TRACK
Would you like to take a leading role in the club? Are you organised and have an eye for detail? Or do you just want to earn a pint for some volunteering? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we have just the ticket for you.
We are looking for a new Track Admin Officer. This is a committee post, which involves technical admin of the track pass app and negotiating hours and rates for the track with GLL and the council.
If you would like to find out more about this, then please contact Amelia.
MEET YOU AT THE GATE
Gate volunteers form the unsung heroes of the club, making sure that our Tuesday and Thursday night sessions can run smoothly and safely.
It’s a great way to meet new people and have a chat with friends too, as well as give back a little bit of time to the club. You can sign up here!
LET’S MAKE IT OFFICIAL
Athletics needs more officials, and volunteering in this way is a wonderful way to give back to the club.
This is a great opportunity to help get club events’ results on Power of 10. And it’s fun.
Our SAL performances not only need athletes, but also qualified officials – so you can directly contribute to our success! Every qualification counts!
It’s a straightforward process that the club will pay for, with more detail on available courses here.
Please contact Len Reilly for more info.
It would be great to see a few more people put their names down to help out!
EASYFUNDRAISING
Over 7,000 brands pay easyfundraising a commission when you start your shop through their platform, so you can raise FREE donations for us no matter what you’re buying. These donations really help us out, so please sign up if you haven’t yet. It’s easy and FREE! You can get started at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/kentac
You can also install a helpful Chrome extension, which prompts you to donate whenever doing any online shopping – really handy
WIN A TRACK PASS
To be added to the rota simply email Jacqueline or Laurie
We only need each track attendee to volunteer a couple of times a year to spread the responsibility fairly.
T&Cs for the track pass draw:
All volunteers for the current month will be added into the hat for a draw each month.
The winner will win a free pass for the next calendar month.
Names will be automatically drawn from https://namepicker.net/ (or similar alternative)
The winner can either chose to:
use their free pass within a calendar year
allow their free pass to roll down to another volunteer
annual pass holders can nominate another club member if they cannot make use of the pass themselves
No refunds/discounts will be provided in place of the free monthly pass.
Volunteers will only be eligible to win a pass once every three months.
TRACK, TRACK, TRACK
Buy your track pass here.
The usual track times are:
Tuesday 17:30 – 20:30
Thursday 18:00 – 20:30
Sunday 09:00 – 11:30
Please note that individuals are permitted to do their own sessions during club opening times, but coached group sessions continue to take priority.
Track Pass – Juniors
Please purchase your £5 junior monthly track pass in advance here. When purchasing the track pass can parents/guardians please enter the athlete’s name when completing the transaction
Please see a helpful FAQs guide here
Ladywell Arena now has new opening hours dedicated to the public. While during these times the Kent AC track pass is not valid, members can pay for an individual session.
Session times are:
Monday: 07:00 -15:00
Tuesday – Thursday: 1300 -1700
Friday: 07:00 – 15:00
Saturday – Sunday: 09:00-15:00
Price:
Adult resident: £2.70
Adult non resident: £3.00
Junior (U16): £1.30
The Kent AC track pass continues to be required for training on Tues/Thurs evenings and Sunday mornings.
Track staff have encouraged people to double check the opening hours before their training session, as they may occasionally be closed for school sport days and football friendlies. Hours can be checked here. This will likely suit members who can’t make training sessions but would like to train in the morning/lunchtime/evening.
Pay as you go fees can either be paid via cash to the desk or using the Better app (note: staff are working to add the sessions to the app).
KEEP US UPDATED
CLUB CONTACTS PAGE
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