Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Brisley’s brilliant run
Athletics
Members of Invicta East Kent AC enjoyed a successful start to the Kent Cross Country League season near Dartford on Saturday.
After a month of solid training, there were some superb individual performances at Stanhill Farm, Wilmington, and excellent team results.
Performance of the day came from the under-15 boys with Charlie Brisley dominating from start to finish to win in confident style.
Matthew Stonier was not far behind in an excellent fifth place with Oscar Patrick in 17th, Sam Newson 23rd, Eliot Wraight 35th, Oliver Weston 44th, Alex Holliday 53rd, Jo Fox 56th and James Ackhurst 65th. IEK were the secondplaced team overall.
Tom Hutton was a superb 10th in the under-13 boys and Harrison White a creditable 66th.
Jildou Chapell and Emilia Stokes were in fine form in the under-13 girls’ event, securing 16th and 17th places respectively.
Isabelle Harding, normally a multieventer in the track season, showed her endurance potential, finishing 25th, while Bethany Waite achieved a respectable 61st place to give the team fifth place.
The under-15 girls’ team were also superb with Alexandra Millard battling hard to come fourth and newcomer Jean Foley 12th, with Louise Flynn achieving an excellent 25th place, bringing the team to third place overall.
The under-17 men put on an excellent display for finish fourth in the team event as Jo Griffiths ran smoothly into 10th place, followed by Marcus Etheridge (17th) and Cole Gibbens (21st).
Ella Fox ran a strong race for the under-17 women, finishing in seventh, while Alice Mount worked hard for 16th spot in her first year in this age group.
Dominic Woolford completed the senior men’s race, coming in 105th in the field of 225 athletes.
The senior women did not disappoint either. Lilly Coward, home from university for the event, ran strongly Invicta East Kent’s Tom Hutton and Harrison White (under-13) in the Kent Cross Country League
achieving second place, while Sarah Hall finished 30th, followed by fit-again Sarah Hotham in 38th. Vicky Rosner Talbot completed the team in 53rd as the team were fifth overall.
The 2017 Parker Tools Canterbury 10mile road race will take place on Sunday, January 22.
The race, which is organised by Invicta East Kent AC, boasted a record entry of over 1,300 runners in 2016 and it is hoped that this total can be topped next year.
There is a new race HQ at Canterbury Christ Church University sports centre.
Entries are available online at www. canterbury10.co.uk
At the Amsterdam Marathon, Canterbury Harriers AC’S Jennie Gardner gained a personal best time of of 3hr 20min 55sec.
Making their debuts, Adam Elston came home in 3:19.67 and Wim Van Vuuren in 3: 39.42.
At the Chilham Castle 5k, Yiannis Christodoulou came first and beat the course record, which he had set the previous year, coming home in 20.48.
Jenny Benson completed the sprint duathlon at Chilham in 1: 33.16 and was first lady home. Paul Knight finished fourth in the standard duathlon in 2: 32.53.