Harrier Women Secure KFL Title with a Race to Spare

The Canterbury Harriers women’s team have secured the Kent Fitness League title for 2023-24 with a race to spare after winning their third race in a row at a breezy and testing Allhallows on 4th February. This was their fourth win of the season and they won the league ahead of Sevenoaks AC who are also assured of the runners-up spot:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Canterbury H	18	17	17	18	18	18	89	106	—	526
2	Sevenoaks AC	16	18	16	17	16	17	84	100	—	662
3	Paddock Wood AC	14	16	18	11	17	15	80	91	—	829

This time the Harrier women were led home by Lucie Parker who came fourth with Emily Collins sixth, the first time that Emily has not been our lead scorer in a KFL race she has run. However, Emily is now assured of finishing no lower than third in the women’s individual championship and can finish second depending on results at Blean Woods. Our other female scorers were Barbara Grogan (V45), Barbara Wenman (V55) and Nicky Leatherbarrow. Barbara Wenman has now also already secured the FV65+ KFL title for this season, thereby extending her extraordinary record in the league; she has won 16 age category prizes in 18 seasons. The only seasons in which she missed out were 2005-6 and 2007-8 where in both cases she was runner-up in the F45-49 category.

For the men, Simon Jones was again our lead scorer, coming fifth, and he now leads the M45-49 category in the league. The club’s other scorers were Yiannis Christodoulou (second V40 scorer with another top ten finish in coming 8th), Jamie Stokes, Ben Parmar, Roddy McLachlan, Greg Norman (V60), Adam Cowper-Smith (first V50 scorer) and Colin Kent (second V50). Peter Whall, Henry Cox and Aron Hancock finished ahead of our last scoring runner but did not score themselves. That meant the club finished fourth in the men’s team result and are sixth in the men’s team competition, with the top seven being as follows:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Medway & Mstn AC	18	18	18	18	18	18	90	108	—	1471
2	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	17	17	15	16	82	97	—	2363
3	Dartford H	16	16	15	16	17	11	80	91	—	2755
4	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	14	14	16	17	75	88	9	2744
5	Sevenoaks AC	14	17	16	13	14	14	75	88	9	3010
6	Canterbury H	15	12	11	15	13	15	70	81	—	3264
7	Maidstone H	11	10	13	12	12	13	61	71	10	4122

In the combined team result Canterbury Harriers finished third and are now fifth in a closely fought competition, the top six of which are:

Rank	Club	Match						Best 5	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Petts Wood Runners	17	17	18	18	15	15	85	100	9	3220
2	Medway & Mstn AC	18	16	15	16	17	18	85	100	9	3235
3	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	16	13	18	17	78	91	—	3573
4	Sevenoaks AC	14	18	17	14	13	14	77	90	—	3672
5	Canterbury H	16	13	13	17	14	16	76	89	—	3790
6	Dartford H	15	15	14	15	16	12	75	87	—	3820

There are photos from the race in the gallery.

38 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
5	5	Simon Jones	48	33:40	V40:1	98.69	45
8	8	Yiannis Christodoulou	40	33:58	V40:2	97.70	43
18	18	Jamie Stokes	38	35:29	M1	94.43	7
34	34	Ben Parmar	29	36:47	M2	89.18	12
40	39	Roddy McLachlan	45	37:12	M3	87.54	16
44	43	Peter Whall	31	37:32	NSBLS	86.23	6
60	4	Lucie Parker	37	38:35	V35	97.90	5
63	6	Emily Collins	29	38:45	F1	96.50	17
75	68	Henry Cox	26	39:45	NSBLS	78.03	22
77	70	Greg Norman	63	40:07	V60	77.38	16
131	116	Aron Hancock	44	43:23	NSBLS	62.30	6
132	16	Barbara Grogan	51	43:28	V45	89.51	7
133	117	Adam Cowper-Smith	65	43:32	V50:1	61.97	44
147	19	Barbara Wenman	65	43:57	V55	87.41	108
150	21	Nicky Leatherbarrow	57	44:03	F2	86.01	11
184	158	Colin Kent	58	45:35	V50:2	48.52	73
196	168	Mark Wenman	69	46:20	NS	45.25	104
224	184	Nathaniel Wells	30	47:37	NS	40.00	13
233	191	Paul Pollard	47	47:53	NS	37.70	4
244	198	John Cooper	64	48:34	NS	35.41	40
252	203	Steve Clark	70	48:55	NS	33.77	138
268	53	Sara Sinnerton	30	49:48	NS	63.64	5
271	218	Gary Robertson	62	50:09	NS	28.85	12
282	224	Joe Hicks	70	50:53	NS	26.89	78
294	232	Paul Moore	59	51:36	NS	24.26	11
298	64	Hannah Wilding	30	51:55	NS	55.94	19
317	245	Marco Keir	62	53:16	NS	20.00	72
329	77	Emily Nurden	26	54:05	NS	46.85	5
335	257	Tony Savage	69	54:32	NS	16.07	59
339	260	Steve Reynolds	65	54:51	NS	15.08	109
341	80	Jean Roffe	56	54:53	NS	44.76	17
351	265	Jon Vann	68	55:45	NS	13.44	42
393	108	Shirley Pullen	59	1:01:24	NS	25.17	42
397	111	Sammy Black	43	1:01:47	NS	23.08	14
409	118	Julie Cox	62	1:03:35	NS	18.18	8
412	294	Andy Farrant	67	1:04:31	NS	3.93	83
436	134	Tina Jones	77	1:11:27	NS	6.99	58
437	303	Roy Gooderson	66	1:11:47	NS	0.98	86

Full results are on the KFL site.

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

The club hosts the final Kent Fitness League race of the season at Blean Woods on 25th February.