Harrier Women Win KFL for Third Straight Year

Many congratulations to the Canterbury Harriers women’s team who won the final race of the season at Blean Woods on 23rd February and with it the Kent Fitness League title for the third year in a row. Emily Collins came second in the race and that result also secured her the runner-up position in the women’s individual championship. She had strong support from Faye Roberts, who had already won the F40-44 league category at Allhallows, in 5th place as the V35 scorer, Sarah Newman in 9th, Claire Pluckrose in 12th (V55) and Nicky Leatherbarrow in 17th (V45). Barbara Grogan finished in 21st place and took the F50-54 league prize as a result.

Emily Collins‘ result also meant that she is again the Club Cross Country Champion with Shirley Pullen taking the Most Improved Female Prize with a rating improvement of 6.54 on the previous season.

The top six women’s teams in the league for 2024-25 were:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Canterbury H	16	17	18	18	18	18	89	105	—	372
2	Sevenoaks AC	18	18	17	17	17	17	87	104	—	474
3	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	16	15	16	16	80	95	—	720
4	NEJ Running Club	12	16	15	13	13	15	72	84	—	1032
5	Thanet RR	14	14	12	14	14	13	69	81	—	1208
6	Dartford H	15	3	14	16	12	12	69	72	—	1511

The men’s team came fifth at Blean Woods which allowed them to leapfrog both Dartford Harriers and Istead & Ifield Harriers to finish sixth in the league. The team were led by Simon Jones in sixth which meant that he also finished eighth in the league for the season. Other scorers were Michael Farbrace (16th), Alex Horsley (18th; second V40 scorer), Ben Parmar (23rd), James Pullen (29th), Hugh Gostelow (77th; V60 scorer), Greg Norman (82nd; first V50 scorer) and Colin Kent (112th; second V50). Hugh Gostelow won the M65-69 league category in an excellent debut season in the league.

Simon Jones thus was the club’s Male Cross-Country Champion again with Paul Pollard taking the Most Improved Male Prize with a 19.25 rating improvement over the 2023-24 season.

The top eight in the final men’s team standings were:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Petts Wood Runners	18	16	18	18	18	17	89	105	—	1570
2	Sevenoaks AC	16	17	16	14	17	18	84	98	—	1958
3	Medway & Mstn AC	11	18	17	15	16	15	81	92	—	2187
4	Thanet RR	13	13	14	17	14	16	74	87	—	2561
5	Paddock Wood AC	15	14	13	16	15	13	73	86	—	2433
6	Canterbury H	12	11	11	13	13	14	63	74	9	3219
7	Istead & Ifield H	14	12	12	12	12	12	62	74	9	3514
8	Dartford H	17	15	15	11	4	2	62	64	—	4352

The good result for the men, together with the winning effort of the women, paid dividends in the combined league where the club finished third at Blean Woods, behind Sevenoaks and Petts Wood Runners. This led to the club moving up to third in the final combined league standings, just beating Paddock Wood AC on total score over all races having tied with them on best five score. The top six combined teams for the 2024-25 KFL season were:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Petts Wood Runners	18	17	17	18	18	17	88	105	—	2293
2	Sevenoaks AC	17	18	18	16	17	18	88	104	—	2434
3	Canterbury H	14	14	14	15	15	16	74	88	—	3591
4	Paddock Wood AC	15	16	12	14	16	13	74	86	—	3837
5	Thanet RR	13	13	13	17	14	15	72	85	—	3773
6	Medway & Mstn AC	10	15	15	12	13	14	69	79	—	4467

Andy Phillips has produced this video of the start of the race and there are photos from the race in the gallery.

43 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
6	6	Simon Jones	49	30:58	V40:1	97.93	51
16	16	Michael Farbrace	26	32:35	M1	93.78	4
18	18	Alex Horsley	47	33:11	V40:2	92.95	18
23	23	Ben Parmar	30	33:41	M2	90.87	19
29	29	James Pullen	23	33:53	M3	88.38	7
33	33	Roddy McLachlan	46	34:16	NSBLS	86.72	23
37	36	Peter Whall	32	34:40	NSBLS	85.48	10
44	2	Emily Collins	30	35:24	F1	99.18	22
49	46	Matt Newman	38	35:46	NSBLS	81.33	15
56	5	Faye Roberts	43	36:30	V35	96.72	20
79	71	Aron Hancock	45	37:59	NSBLS	70.95	13
80	9	Sarah Newman	41	38:04	F2	93.44	7
87	77	Hugh Gostelow	67	38:23	V60	68.46	6
92	82	Greg Norman	64	38:44	V50:1	66.39	21
94	12	Claire Pluckrose	56	38:58	V55	90.98	33
116	17	Nicky Leatherbarrow	58	39:53	V45	86.89	17
119	18	Faye Jeacocke	48	40:04	NS	86.07	6
122	104	Paul Pollard	48	40:14	NSBLS	57.26	11
133	113	Colin Kent	59	41:04	V50:2	53.53	80
137	21	Barbara Grogan	52	41:08	NS	83.61	14
153	126	Fiouse Corbeil	52	41:51	NS	48.13	31
170	140	Adam Cowper-Smith	66	42:53	NS	42.32	51
192	150	Gary Robertson	63	44:10	NS	38.17	19
216	167	Rob Waite	52	45:25	NS	31.12	4
217	50	Elizabeth Coult	43	45:28	NS	59.84	3
233	175	Joe Hicks	71	46:53	NS	27.80	83
245	183	Steve Clark	71	47:30	NS	24.48	145
246	184	Phil Wyard	62	47:45	NS	24.07	39
251	65	Mandy Poulter	53	48:00	NS	47.54	17
259	190	Ben Lowe	47	48:43	NS	21.58	4
260	191	Mick Ellsmore	72	48:46	NS	21.16	5
275	76	Emily Parris	32	49:43	NS	38.52	8
276	77	Deb Parris	56	49:43	NS	37.70	38
279	200	Marco Keir	63	49:53	NS	17.43	76
288	207	Matthew Northover	56	50:41	NS	14.52	36
294	210	Peter Yarlett	72	51:27	NS	13.28	67
303	89	Shirley Pullen	60	52:59	NS	27.87	49
308	215	John Cooper	65	53:37	NS	11.20	45
343	233	Richard Hudson	68	1:00:29	NS	3.73	30
350	116	Tina Jones	78	1:03:21	NS	5.74	63
361	241	Roy Gooderson	67	1:11:53	NS	0.41	91
362	121	Jean Roffe	57	1:11:54	NS	1.64	24
363	122	Karen Hoult	60	1:16:29	NS	0.82	35

Full results are on the KFL site.

Many thanks to Race Director Sammy Black and all the marshals and other helpers who made the Blean Woods race go smoothly.