Author: Sarah Kenyon

The Early May Bank Holiday race calendar had two known races in the Kent county. The Whitstable 10k and the Ted Pepper 10k, held in Bromley. Sean Barwick at the Whitstable 10k, placing 6th finisher out of a field of 1000 participants, finishing in an approximate time of 36:11s.

Over in West Kent, Bromley, two of our veteran Medway and Maidstone AC members competed in the Ted Pepper multi terrain 10k. Taryne McPherson finished as 3rd female, placing 34th with Bob Fursey following closely behind in 35th place, Bob also won the M60 Southern County Veterans Championship. 

The Club were host to the the BMC 800m races at the Club’s first Open meeting of the season. The races saw 19 PBs in total but an outstanding run by Shaikira King, running a new UK 800m age 14 best performance of 2:06.21.

There were some fantastic runs and PBS for M&M athletes. U17 athletes, Franklin Shepherd 1:56.10 (ranked 4th) and Amber Matthews a new PB by over 6 seconds 2:13.78 (ranked 9th). Senior, Jamie Walsh,1:56.72 and U15 Rose Crossley in 2:24.17. Full results can be found here

Our Open meeting results can be found here. Outstanding performances from Cheyne West in the 400mH with a PB of 55.23 and currently ranked No 1 in his U17 age group. U20 Dylan Purton also racing to a new 400m in 48.23 and currently ranked 3rd.

The Club held their AGM/Winter Presentation Awards Evening on Friday 31st March 2023. Presentation of Awards were given to the Cross Country, Road, Sportshall and Indoor season. This was followed by a quiz kindly arranged by Steve Munday.

Cross Country Awards Winners

	Best	Merit	Team Manager Medals (max 3)
U13G	Olivia Baker	Gwen Thomas	Ava Graham, Matilda Moisan
U15G	Iris Crossley/Amber Matthews	Rose Crossley	Heidi Hughes, Sophia Cudmore-Smith
U17W	Abigail Royden	Lily Crossley	Natalia Austin, Lola Sutton & Beth Palmer
U20W	Ella Webb	Annabel Young	Sharne Elphick & Ciara Harrop
SW	Emily Hale
W35	Taryne Macpherson	Jenny Fowler
W50	Karen Cudmore
U13B	Freddie Gibson	Louie Gear	Connor Cousins, Henry Powell and Oliver Field
U15B	Theo Ronchetti	Henry Gibson	Alfred Moisan
U17M	Franklin Shepherd	Riley Maisey	Hayden Gear
U20M	Cameron Featherstone	Callum Featherstone
SM	Ben Tyler	Jordan Howes	Tom Collins
M40	Anthony Webb	Neill Wright	Justin Lane
M50	Adam Featherstone	Gareth Williams
M60	Paul McAuliffe

Winner of the Jeremy Wilson Cup – Sean Rodwell

Indoor to be updated

Road to be updated

Sportshall to be updated

For the first time in several years, all spring marathons were back in their traditional slots and athletes from Medway & Maidstone took part in three of them. 

On April 2nd, Sean Barwick ran Brighton Marathon (his third marathon), finishing in a time of 3:26:58. April 16^th was Manchester Marathon where two of our athletes ran. Normally a track athlete, William Blake completed his debut marathon in 3:46:58 and Bob Fursey (MV60) finished in 4:20:41. Through a combination of ballot places, good for age places, charity places, club champs and a club place, M&M saw eight athletes take part in the London Marathon on 23^rd April. For the men, first home and with a PB, was Ben Tyler in 2:28:38 followed by Steve McGlynn, also with a PB of 2:55:25. Neill Wright achieved a PB to get him his first sub-3-hour marathon in 2:56:57 followed by Martin Taylor in 3:06:11 and, in his debut marathon, Max Terry finished in 4:11:35. For the ladies, Emily Hale made her debut with an impressive 3:13:43. Another debut was by Vanessa Vander who finished in 3:47:08, followed by Hayley Palmer who achieved a PB of 3:57:56. Congratulations to all of them!

The Club held it’s first AGM/Presentation evening since 2019. Thank you to all that attended the evening. Well done to all our award receivers.

(Confirmation of award winners to be added).

On Good Friday 7^th April, eight athletes from Medway & Maidstone AC took part in the Folkestone 10-mile race; a fast and flat course starting on the green in Hythe and heading along the seafront to Folkestone and back. In a change to the usual course which previously took runners into the Folkestone Leas Coastal Park, this year the course continued on the promenade with a turnaround point at 5 miles thus eliminating any hills and making for an even faster course. First over the line for M&M was Lee McMeekin in 57:54 (8^th overall and 1^st M50), followed by Joshua Nice in 1:06:49, Alun Rodgers, returning from injury with 1:07:56, Paul Mcauliffe who was 1^st M65 with 1:09:25 and Bob Fursey in 1:10:39. Representing the ladies, Taryne McPherson was 2^nd F45, 9^th female overall and achieved both a personal best and a new F45 club record with 1:10:45. She was followed by Hayley Palmer who got a PB of 1:21:32 and Vanessa Vander in 1:25:07.  

Results Here

On Sunday 2nd April, Medway & Maidstone AC a senior ladies team and two senior men’s teams travelled to the Olympic Park in East London to take part in the South of England Athletic Association (SEAA) Road Relay Race. In the ladies race the six stages were made up of four short legs (approx. 4.8km) and two short legs (approx. 7.2km) around the tarmac paths of the Olympic Park. In running order; Catherine Rodwell finished a short leg in 24:27; Vanessa Vander ran a long leg in 34:27; Chloe Hammond a short leg in 19:39; Emily Hale a long leg in 29:35; Taryne McPherson a short leg in 19:52 with Bernadette Harrop completing the team with a short leg in 23:25, bringing the total time to 02:31:27 for 33.6km which put them as 30th team out of 38 amongs teams from the whole of the South of England. Fortunately (taking into account the wettest March for 40 years), the conditions were fair, with the sunshine making an appearance for a good part of the day. The ladies were pleased to have sent a team out for the first time at the SEAA Road Relays for a number of years.

In the men’s race, it was the first time in memory that M&M fielded two teams with the A and B team finishing 32nd and 49th respectively.  There were some standout performances on the day from Jordan Howes, Jamie Walsh, Jonny Whittall and Marley Godden, all running fast times for their legs.  Mark Simpson also had a great run, showing a return to form.  The teams narrowly missed out on qualification for the nationals, but despite missing some key athletes, still kept pace with some of the top clubs in the South of England.

There were lots of successful results for M&M athletes at the Kent Indoor Championships which tool place at Lee Valley on 18th and 19th March. Well done to all our medal winners and those that took part. Results here

Sunday 12^th March 2023 saw the return of the Paddock Wood Half Marathon – a regular date in the diary for runners and the perfect event for any runners training for spring marathons. Fortunately, despite recent inclement conditions, the weather held out for the duration of the race. 

Eleven athletes from Medway & Maidstone AC took part – from the men’s team, Ben Tyler was placed 11^th overall in 01:10:14, followed by Daniel St Martin in 01:14:53 (59th), Jonathan Whittall in 01:16:30 (72nd), Neill Wright who achieved a PB of 01:19:04 (110^th), Jacques Smit in 01:21:49 (149th), Stephen McGlynn in 01:24:08 (188th), Joshua Nice in 01:29:46 (311th) and Max Terry in 01:44:07 (640th). For the ladies, Chloe Hammond beat her own PB and club record, finishing in 01:32:18 (360th) followed by two ladies who both got PBs; Vanessa Vander who ran 01:43:23 (608th) and Hayler Palmer with 01:50:53 (824th), standing them in good stead for their debuts at the London Marathon on April 23rd .