Fifth Victory of the Season for the Harrier Women

Canterbury Harriers hosted the seventh and final race of the 2023-24 Kent Fitness League season at Blean Woods on 25th February with Sammy Black doing another fine job as race director with the assistance of many Harriers and their family members. Many thanks to all who helped with race preparation and marshalling on a very wet and muddy course.

In the race the Harrier women’s team, despite having already won the female team championship, achieved their fifth victory of the season, led home for the sixth time in 2023-24 by Emily Collins who was fifth in the women’s race. Whilst unfortunately Andrea Berquez of Sevenoaks AC just pipped Emily to the runner-up spot in the women’s individual championship, Emily has won the prize for third place. Lucie Parker capped an excellent debut season by coming sixth at Blean Woods and also finished sixth in the women’s championship. Emily and Lucie were supported by Claire Pluckrose (20th, FV55 scorer and pictured at the top of this post navigating some of the deep puddles in Blean Woods), Barbara Wenman (24th, F45 scorer) and Nicky Leatherbarrow (27th). Barbara had already clinched the F65 prize at Allhallows on 4th February. The top six in the women’s team championship finished as follows:

Rank	Club	Match							Best 6	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Canterbury H	18	17	17	18	18	18	18	107	124	—	608
2	Sevenoaks AC	16	18	16	17	16	17	16	100	116	—	756
3	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	15	13	15	14	17	93	106	—	946
4	Paddock Wood AC	14	16	18	11	17	15	12	92	103	—	1056
5	Dartford H	15	14	12	15	13	13	13	83	95	—	1289
6	NEJ Running Club	12	13	13	14	11	16	15	83	94	—	1324

For the men, Simon Jones (7th, first MV40 scorer) and Yiannis Christodoulou (9th, second MV40 scorer) both finished in the top ten with Simon taking the fifth place prize in the men’s individual championship. Other scorers were Jamie Stokes, Roddy McLachlan, Peter Whall, Greg Norman (MV60), Adam Cowper-Smith (first MV50 scorer) and Colin Kent (second MV50 scorer). Additionally, Steve Clark won the M70+ league prize with Joe Hicks runner-up to him in that category. Unfortunately Peter Hogben could not run due to injury and thus had to relinquish his first place in the men’s individual championship.

Those efforts resulted in Canterbury Harriers coming fourth in the men’s team race at Blean Woods and finishing sixth in the men’s team championship:

Rank	Club	Match							Best 6	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Medway & Mstn AC	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	108	126	—	1681
2	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	17	17	15	16	17	99	114	—	2595
3	Dartford H	16	16	15	16	17	11	13	93	104	12	3405
4	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	14	14	16	17	16	91	104	9	3131
5	Sevenoaks AC	14	17	16	13	14	14	14	89	102	—	3592
6	Canterbury H	15	12	11	15	13	15	15	85	96	—	3782

In the combined team race the club came third on the day and finished fourth in the combined championship, with the top six being:

Rank	Club	Match							Best 6	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Petts Wood Runners	17	17	18	18	15	15	18	103	118	—	3541
2	Medway & Mstn AC	18	16	15	16	17	18	17	102	117	—	3698
3	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	16	13	18	17	15	93	106	—	4187
4	Canterbury H	16	13	13	17	14	16	16	92	105	—	4390
5	Sevenoaks AC	14	18	17	14	13	14	14	91	104	—	4348
6	Dartford H	15	15	14	15	16	13	13	88	101	—	4694

There are photos from the race in the gallery.

42 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
7	7	Simon Jones	48	30:58	V40:1	97.86	46
9	9	Yiannis Christodoulou	40	31:24	V40:2	97.15	44
19	19	Jamie Stokes	38	32:34	M1	93.59	8
43	42	Roddy McLachlan	45	34:28	M2	85.41	17
50	48	Peter Whall	31	34:42	M3	83.27	7
57	55	Ben Parmar	29	34:57	NSBLS	80.78	13
69	65	Matt Slark	35	36:12	NSBLS	77.22	23
73	5	Emily Collins	29	36:22	F1	97.39	18
74	6	Lucie Parker	37	36:27	V35	96.73	6
77	69	Greg Norman	63	36:33	V60	75.80	17
111	94	Henry Cox	26	38:31	NSBLS	66.90	23
117	99	Aron Hancock	44	38:43	NSBLS	65.12	7
129	110	Matt Newman	37	39:35	NSBLS	61.21	11
130	20	Claire Pluckrose	55	39:36	V55	87.58	28
140	24	Barbara Wenman	65	40:20	V45	84.97	109
150	27	Nicky Leatherbarrow	57	40:38	F2	83.01	12
167	29	Barbara Grogan	51	41:17	NS	81.70	8
183	150	Adam Cowper-Smith	65	42:00	V50:1	46.98	45
185	151	Paul Pollard	47	42:05	NSBLS	46.62	5
201	37	Joanne Norrington	40	42:39	NS	76.47	61
215	175	Colin Kent	58	43:38	V50:2	38.08	74
229	186	Mark Wenman	70	44:23	NS	34.16	105
263	203	Steve Clark	70	46:02	NS	28.11	139
265	62	Hannah Wilding	30	46:13	NS	60.13	20
271	66	Sara Sinnerton	30	46:44	NS	57.52	6
280	210	Gary Robertson	62	47:19	NS	25.62	13
288	73	Deb Parris	55	47:57	NS	52.94	35
289	74	Emily Parris	31	47:58	NS	52.29	7
304	82	Jean Roffe	56	48:48	NS	47.06	18
315	87	Emily Nurden	26	49:47	NS	43.79	6
321	231	John Cooper	64	50:50	NS	18.15	41
330	237	Tony Savage	69	51:37	NS	16.01	60
336	240	Matthew Northover	55	52:13	NS	14.95	31
337	241	Jon Vann	68	52:14	NS	14.59	43
373	257	Geoff Burston	74	56:08	NS	8.90	29
398	129	Shirley Pullen	59	58:38	NS	16.34	43
399	270	Andy Farrant	67	58:40	NS	4.27	84
402	131	Julie Cox	62	59:37	NS	15.03	9
417	278	Roy Gooderson	66	1:04:52	NS	1.42	87
418	140	Tina Jones	77	1:06:08	NS	9.15	59
433	152	Aleisha Robinson	26	1:30:24	NS	1.31	5
434	153	Karen Hoult	59	1:30:25	NS	0.65	33

Full results are on the KFL site.

Robin Bell of Plumstead has produced the following video of the race:

Congratulations to all the Canterbury Harriers who ran in the Kent Fitness League this season. You’ve all put in excellent efforts!