The final race of KFL season took place at a very cold Blean Woods just outside Canterbury on Sunday morning. The weather threw everything at the runner’s young and old, wind, rain, and sleet along with at times the odd glimpse of sunshine. The course was 2 laps of a playing field (juniors only) and then also for the adults one long lap of the Blean Woods before finishing back on the playing field with plenty of mud. 17 club runners made the journey to East Kent along with 5 junior members.
With the juniors running first in in some pretty horrendous conditions John Jance ran in the U/11s boys race and was first home for the club in 7th place followed by his brother Michael in 9th place with Dylan Holmes who came home in 13th place .The only young lady out on the day was Jess Rayner who ran in the U/14 girl’s race finishing in 4th place. Tom Barker who ran in the U/17 boy’s race finished in an impressive 1st place. Some pretty good efforts over a long season and at times some horrid weather conditions for running. We take this opportunity to thank all the juniors that ran this season as well as their parents for bringing then along and supporting the KFL junior races. The final league positions should be available early next week and will be posted out as soon as they are received.
Colin Tricker came home first for the club in the senior race in a very impressive 8th place. David Sampson 40th, Nick Denbow finished strongly in an excellent 48th place and Daniel Grimwood 63rd (despite summersaulting through a muddy ditch) and were the clubs scoring veteran runners once again. Peter Buckingham 85th, Paul Mace 114th, Simon Poole 116th along with Paul Graves 141st made up the rest of men’s scoring runners. Les Percival 150th along with John Tilston 167th who did well to finish after being ill last week made up the rest of the clubs male runners. Sadly Trevor Crysell did not complete the race due to injury, a wise decision with the London Marathon to come. Nathan Chapman warmed up but did not start the race due to an injury picked up during the week, both were sorely missed.
The first lady home for the club once again was Becky Morrish in 66th place a fantastic 3rd lady home. Making a welcome return to the team was Lynsey Ritchie who finished in 163rd place 23rd lady overall. Fiona Buckingham 211th overall, 43rd lady along with Mandy Barker 260th overall, 64th lady made up the rest of the clubs scoring female team. Sue Chivers 297th, 84 th lady home made up the rest of the clubs female runners.
PWAC’s finished 6th combined team on the day. The men finishing 8th with the ladies finishing in a fantastic 5th place. The full race results please take a look at the KFL website http://kfl.canterburyharriers.org the clubs results can be seen posted on our own website.
After the 7 KFL race’s PWAC’s combined team have held on to marvellous 4th place in the team event after finishing 6th last season. The men’s team finished 4th overall with the ladies team finishing in 12th place overall out of the 18 teams that participate in the league.
5 of the clubs runners completed all 7 of the KFL races this season, Mandy Barker, Sue Chivers, Nick Denbow, Simon Poole and David Sampson. Sadly Ron Carr missed out due to illness. A fantastic feat as only 1 club member managed to do all 7 last season.
47 different adult club runners took part in the KFL this season with some fantastic turnouts at some of the far flung corners of Kent.
We would like to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to all of the 47 runners who took part and have played their part in making this season most enjoyable. We are already looking forward to next season with people already telling us they want to run all the 7 races. With a concerted team effort 2nd place next year in the combined team event is a real possibility.
Richard and Jeanette Elliott
PWAC KFL Team Managers
