Blackheath & Bromley’s older athletes enjoyed a successful afternoon at the Kent Veterans Cross Country Championships at Tunbridge Wells with three individual winners and three team wins across the six age group races.

Jennie Butler won the womens over 35s race by seven seconds in 19.26 and with Jane Bradshaw 4th and Sarah Dowling 6th the Club were emphatic winners of the team race. In fact, had B teams been allowed to score in the team contest the Club would have won the silver medals as well since, in an impressive display of strength, Sara Elmqvist was 8th, Bridget Davey 9th and Lisa Page 11th. They could have finished a C team as well with Kate Pratten 17th , Carolyna Jones Baldock 21st and Justine Eastbury 22nd.

The mens over 40s team missed out on bronze medals by just five points as Kevin May was first home in 10th place with Roy Priestley 23rd, Andy Tucker 27th, Steve Pairman 39th, Ian Taylor 41st and Brendan McShane 52nd.

Past President Anne Cilia inspired the womens over 45s to silver medals with a fine 9th place. Annie McDonough 14th and Jackie Montgomery 17th completed the scoring trio.

The Club had both the individual and team winners in the mens over 50s race. Top triathlete Nick Kinsey was an emphatic winner finishing over half a minute clear of the runner up. Mark Watling and Cliff Keene’s 6th and 7th places meant the Club won the team race by a massive 34 points. Again the rules prevented the B team from winning medals as the trio of Mark Ellison (12th), Andy Lawes (14th) and Chris Pike (17th) scored better than the official bronze medallists.

It was double gold again in the mens over 60s race with a clean sweep of the individual medals. Paul Ross Davies was a runaway winner, eventually finishing nearly a minute clear of runner up Graham Coates. Ken Daniel made a late decision to run and was rewarded with third place, giving the Club a perfect score in the team race. Again a B team of Rob Brown in 6th, Jim Phelan 10th and John Fenwick 16th would have won bronze, rules permitting, with John Turner 19th.

Helen Godesll is better known as a sprinter but she showed remarkable versatility to win silver in the over 55s age group. Maz Turner was 10th.

With these results and given the Club’s strength in the younger age groups, it would appear the Club are the strongest in the County from the cradle to the grave.

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