In the final race of the season of the Kent Fitness Cross-country League, Medway & Maidstone AC provided another good turn out with 9 runners completing the interesting woody course at Blean. This race finished an excellent season for the club which saw them improve their league position significantly over recent years. With 18 teams competing, the combined team were 10th on the day and 8th overall, the men’s team 7th on the day and 5th overall and the women’s team 17th on the day and 16th overall. The combined league winners were Petts Wood Runners who had a clean sweep, also taking the men and women’s league titles.
Chris Rampling had a superb run to take 5th place (out of 329 runners), closely followed by Neill Wright in 8th. Barry Royden was highly placed in the M50 category and 22nd overall, followed by M45 Adam Featherstone in 31st , Alun Rodgers (M50) 34th, Owen Featherstone 81st in his debut at this league, Ivon Whitmore (M65) 203rd and Nigel Read (M65) in 319th. Mo Fazakerley was the only women runner finishing in 50th.
Final league positions were decided with Jay Smith of Dartford Road Runners taking the league title with 6 individual wins out of 7. Simon Fox of Petts Wood Runners was second in the league and Simon Jones of Canterbury Harriers was 3rd. For the club Daniel St Martin was 5th, Neill Wright 8th overall and 3rd M40, Adam Featherstone 23rd overall and 6th M45. Alun Rodgers, who was 5th in the M50 category is worthy of a special mention. After competing in the league for 15 years he has now competed in 97 races and although he is now in the M50 category, this season he had his best race positions and overall league position by far.
The women’s individual title was claimed by Beck Morrish of Paddock Wood with Renata McDonell of Deal Tri taking silver and Geraldine Schaer of Petts Wood the bronze.
Medway & Maidstone, Cameron Featherstone, finished 1st on the day and also won the U14 boys overall title. Abigail Royden running as a guest, due to the Kent Schools Inter counties being cancelled, took 1st place in the U14s on the day.