Simon Jones, Peter Hogben & Emily Collins all Achieve Top 3 Finishes at Betteshanger Park

The weather for the fifth Kent Fitness League race at Betteshanger Country Park on 14th January was at least kinder than that for the race at Minnis Bay on the previous Sunday, albeit rather cold. This led to a record number of finishers at Betteshanger Country Park, breaking the 400 barrier for the first time. At the top end of the field, Simon Jones secured a season-best second place, just two seconds behind winner Alexander Donnelly of Medway & Maidstone. Eleven seconds behind Simon was Peter Hogben in third. Peter remains in the lead in the men’s individual championship.

For the Harrier women, Emily Collins achieved an even more impressive result than the previous week’s second place at Minnis. She was again second to Charlotte Johnston of Maidstone Harriers, who is now already assured of retaining her title, but this time she also beat Sarah Shepheard of Paddock Wood AC and Andrea Berquez of Sevenoaks AC who had skipped the race at Minnis Bay. This also means that Emily is second in the women’s individual championship.

Emily beating Sarah Shepheard was an important factor in the Harriers again winning the women’s team race, this time by only three placing points ahead of Paddock Wood AC. Emily was supported by Lucie Parker (V35 scorer and another top ten finish in seventh place), Claire Pluckrose (V55), Nicky Leatherbarrow (V45) and Barbara Wenman as scorers. That leaves the top three in the women’s team championship looking as follows:

Rank	Club	Match					Best 4	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5
1	Canterbury H	18	17	17	18	18	71	88	—	460
2	Sevenoaks AC	16	18	16	17	16	67	83	—	555
3	Paddock Wood AC	14	16	18	11	17	65	76	—	686

For the men, the other scorers were Yiannis Christodoulou (second V40 scorer), Ben Parmar, Peter Whall, Greg Norman (V60), Colin Kent (first V50) and Adam Cowper-Smith (second V50). Peter Ash made a fine debut for the club in the league. The men’s team finished sixth and the club was fifth in the combined team result. That leaves the club sixth in the combined team standings, the top seven of which are:

Rank	Club	Match					Best 4	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5
1	Petts Wood Runners	17	17	18	18	15	70	85	—	2698
2	Medway & Mstn AC	18	16	15	16	17	67	82	—	2794
3	Sevenoaks AC	14	18	17	14	13	63	76	—	2995
4	Dartford H	15	15	14	15	16	61	75	—	2979
5	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	16	13	18	61	74	—	3090
6	Canterbury H	16	13	13	17	14	60	73	—	3275
7	Maidstone H	12	10	12	12	12	48	58	—	4731

The club is also sixth in the men’s team standings, the top eight of which are:

Rank	Club	Match					Best 4	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4	5
1	Medway & Mstn AC	18	18	18	18	18	72	90	—	1270
2	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	17	17	15	66	81	—	2009
3	Dartford H	16	16	15	16	17	65	80	—	2087
4	Sevenoaks AC	14	17	16	13	14	61	74	—	2440
5	Paddock Wood AC	13	14	14	14	16	58	71	—	2404
6	Canterbury H	15	12	11	15	13	55	66	—	2815
7	Istead & Ifield H	12	13	12	11	11	48	59	—	3360
8	Maidstone H	11	10	13	12	12	48	58	—	3495

There are photos from the race in the gallery.

47 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
2	2	Simon Jones	48	29:36	V40:1	99.65	44
3	3	Peter Hogben	31	29:47	M1	99.31	27
15	15	Yiannis Christodoulou	40	31:16	V40:2	95.14	42
45	45	Ben Parmar	29	33:46	M2	84.72	11
57	2	Emily Collins	29	34:34	F1	99.38	16
63	59	Peter Whall	31	35:07	M3	79.86	5
66	61	Roddy McLachlan	45	35:10	NSBLS	79.17	15
75	69	Greg Norman	63	35:37	V60	76.39	15
77	7	Lucie Parker	37	35:44	V35	96.27	4
83	74	Matt Slark	35	35:59	NSBLS	74.65	22
94	81	Henry Cox	26	36:34	NSBLS	72.22	21
121	105	Matt Newman	37	38:10	NSBLS	63.89	10
135	22	Claire Pluckrose	55	38:51	V55	86.96	27
149	125	Aron Hancock	44	39:41	NSBLS	56.94	5
167	29	Nicky Leatherbarrow	57	40:17	V45	82.61	10
169	30	Barbara Wenman	65	40:20	F2	81.99	107
206	165	Colin Kent	58	42:02	V50:1	43.06	72
208	167	Adam Cowper-Smith	64	42:12	V50:2	42.36	43
221	176	Mark Wenman	69	42:49	NS	39.24	103
224	179	John Cooper	64	42:56	NS	38.19	39
226	180	Paul Pollard	47	43:02	NS	37.85	3
239	188	Peter Ash	54	43:24	NS	35.07	Debut
255	197	Gary Robertson	61	44:09	NS	31.94	11
256	198	Nathaniel Wells	30	44:20	NS	31.60	12
270	64	Emily Nurden	26	44:48	NS	60.87	4
274	210	Steve Clark	70	45:08	NS	27.43	137
295	74	Sara Sinnerton	30	46:02	NS	54.66	4
304	79	Sammy Black	43	46:36	NS	51.55	13
315	231	Paul Moore	59	47:22	NS	20.14	10
320	233	Joe Hicks	70	47:48	NS	19.44	77
328	91	Jean Roffe	56	48:30	NS	44.10	16
351	105	Hannah Wilding	30	50:01	NS	35.40	18
353	248	Tony Savage	69	50:13	NS	14.24	58
376	260	Steve Reynolds	65	51:58	NS	10.07	108
380	262	Jon Vann	67	52:32	NS	9.38	41
382	119	Emily Parris	31	52:36	NS	26.71	6
383	120	Deb Parris	55	52:36	NS	26.09	34
385	264	Phil Wyard	61	53:14	NS	8.68	34
395	270	Marco Keir	62	53:53	NS	6.60	71
398	127	Shirley Pullen	59	54:42	NS	21.74	41
406	274	Geoff Burston	74	56:02	NS	5.21	28
417	138	Jane Hadler	58	58:21	NS	14.91	18
420	140	Julie Cox	62	59:04	NS	13.66	7
430	284	Andy Farrant	67	1:01:08	NS	1.74	82
432	148	Tina Jones	77	1:02:19	NS	8.70	57
439	287	Roy Gooderson	66	1:06:22	NS	0.69	85
443	156	Aleisha Robinson	25	1:14:22	NS	3.73	4

Full results are on the KFL site.

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

The next race in the league is at Allhallows on 4th February at 11am.