Medway & Maidstone AC repeated last season’s outcome in the Kent Cross-country League by taking second places in the 4-to-score and 12-to-score team competition, both on the day and for the overall season. With 22 teams competing, this was another great result for the club. Tonbridge AC just scrapedvictory on the day, giving them the overall league title.
Consistently good runs over the season’s 4 races also led to several individual medals and high league individual rankingsfor the club. After 4 races, Ben Tyler of Medway & Maidstone AC took Gold. Silver went to Chris Loudon of Cambridge Harriers, with Tom Collins of Medway & Maidstone AC taking bronze. Tewelde Menges (also M & M) was leading until the final race, but is currently away on a training camp.
In addition to the overall Senior category medal winners, club runners were also awarded age group category medals, Neill Wright taking bronze in the M40s and Adam Featherstone bronze in the M50s. Going into the last race Anthony Webb was clear leader in the M40 category, but injury prevented him running the last race.
Other club members achieving high rankings after 4 races were Cameron Featherstone (U20 12th), Neill Wright (M45, 13th) and Justin Lane(4th M40 and 14th overall). Lane had a clear 3rd place M40 ranking before the final race and although he ran all 4 races a recent operation moved him down the list.Gareth Williams was 8th in the M50 rankings.
In the final race, Sean Molloy of Tonbridge AC was the first runner home, followed by Tyler (M & M) and Oliver Weston (Invicta AC) in 3rd. Following Tyler for the club was Jordan Howes in 7th place. Howes has improved significantly over the season, his previous league positions were 31 and 25. Collins was 3rd team scorer in 10th, followed by Jamie Walsh to complete the 4-to-score team. Walsh is another runner having a great season and despite being injured 10 days before the race Walsh had a great run to finish in 17th.
The 12-to-score team was completed by Callum Featherstone (U20) in 27th, very closely followed by his brother Cameron Featherstone (U20) in 28th. Alex Donnelly, with a big improvement on previous league races, was 33rd. Lee McMeekin in 37th (2nd M50 on the day) travelled up from Devon to run and showed he is returning to full fitness. Neill Wright (M45) was 45th, Johnathan Whittall 46th , Adam Featherstone (M50) 52nd and Justin Lane (M45) completing the 12-to-score team in 88th. Stephen Turpie, running his first Kent League race for nearly 4th years, provided good support in 91st, followed by Gareth Williams (M55) 100th, Sean Rodwell (M35) 109th, Bob Fursey (M60) 131st, Barry Royden (M55) 163rd and Adrian Donnelly (M50) 177th.
The Senior Women only had two athletes for this final Kent league. Emily Hale finished in 10th place and Jenny Fowler (W45) in 32nd. Well done to both.
The only remaining Cross-Country race is the English National Cross-Country Championship at Chester on the 25th February.