Another Saturday and another Kent League cross-country fixture at the notorious Somerhill
Schools Tonbridge, run over a proper cross-country course.

However, its reputation didn’t put off over 70 BBHAC young athletes, and their collective efforts saw three individual winners and two team winners, with dozens of other great results.

Under 12 – Once again the U12’s got us off to a strong start over their 3K course with Isabella Bruce having another great run placing a very strong 2nd. Athena Jannati having a strong run in 7th and Zoe Winter 29th. Charlie Thomson was a strong 5th for the boys backed up by Noah Coelho- Camacho 13th, Quentin Aldridge 25th, Jack Pharoah 28th and Gerard Koziolek 48th.

U14 boys – Jacob Pearce had another superb run maintaining his 100% record of KL victories. Luc Jones had another strong run in 8th, Anthony Streich in 13th and Fletcher Kelly had a very strong run placing 18th followed by Sam Woods in 23rd, William Jackson in 28th, Ben Davis on his debut on 38th, Seb Rayner 51st and Leo Belsey, also on his debut in 63rd.

U14 girls – Our U14 girls combined well to win the team race on the day and another super victory for Sofia James, making it 2 out of 2 so far. Zara Lett secured another 3rd place. Louisa Ball went one better than last week, with a strong 6th place. Lilybelle Lewis had a very strong run making the top 10 placing 9th. Strong packing by BBHAC saw Ella Nickson a great 12th, Lena Aldridge 13th, Lucy Beeraje 14th, Mollie Sedgwick 17th, Blake Amos 21st and Inara Homans-Yau 30th.

U16 boys – Harry Beeraje had a superb run bringing the Blackheath contingent home in a solid 3rd closely followed by Zach Evans in 5th, Dexter Mein in 7th, Akul Gurunathan in 9th and Emery Aldridge in 10th. It was good to see Lucas Bovell making his club debut in 33rd just in front of Jesse Williams, making his season opener in 34th. Great to see Billy Pharoah racing again finishing 48th. Luke Eperon, in his season opener placing 52nd, Lewis Crick 63rd and Haydn Kenny back running despite some difficulties, in a good 69th.

U16 girls – Harriet Hughes made light of the 4K course and was first BBHAC home for the girls in a strong 3rd with Jazzy Stephens 5th, Isabella Jenkins having a great run in 12th and Charlotte Spencer 17th. Then three in a row with Stella Garvey 21st, Alice Bunn 22nd and Olivia King 23rd with Imogen Jenner Heard completing the squad in 28th.

U18 boys – Another strong run from Kian Farrell placing an impressive 3rd over the tough 5k course. James Bunn continuing to impress on his recovery was 5th and James Shaw making the top 10 in 10th. Ricardo Cervera-Tomlins 17th, JP Bremerkamp on his return to racing was a pleasing 34th, Patrick Doyle 38th, Benj Evans 39th and Akin Adeyemo on his season opener 57th.

U18 girls – Evie De Bruyn continued her great start to the season with her second Kent league victory, out of two! Sofia Mossi, on her season opener coped well with the 5K and finished an impressive 5th. Alba Homans-Yau was a strong 7th, Hannah Carter 9th and Celia Yeatman in 10th. A strong 15th place for Rowan Pearson, Lily Day 21st, Chloe Moraz 23rd and Nancy Cox, in her season opener 27th, all combining well to win the U18 girls team race on the day. Elliot Amos sensibly pulled out mid race due to not feeling quite right.

U20 men – Alex Martin had another strong run on the tough 8K course placing an impressive 2nd with Ben O’Grady a strong 5th, Nathan Clark 11th and Aniket Iyengar, on his season opener, 12th. The team placed second on the day.

U20 women – Jasmine Mahoney made easy work of the tough 8K course finishing a strong 3rd and Kyla Dervish not far behind in 7th place. Interesting to see that no Kent clubs could field scoring teams of three. I wonder if the jump from 5K to 8K this year, for the U20s has contributed to this.

In the Senior Women’s 8k race, Millie Smith was first home for the club again in a tightly fought battle for victory where she had to accept second place, just seconds behind the winner. These two were a class above the rest as they finished a phenomenal two minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

Next in was Carys Firth, who very confidently moved through the field one by one to finish an excellent 8th, improving a place from last week. Third scorer was Jasmine Mahoney (U20) who had an absolutely amazing run. In the previous race she finished in 44th position, this week she shaved well over 3 minutes off last weeks’ time and placed 18th. Footscray was obviously just her warm up.

Next home for the club was Jennie Butler, also improving on last week to come in 22nd, and following strongly to make up the 6 to score team were Gracie Horton in 36th in her opening xc race, and Kyla Dervish (U20) just behind in 38th. A special mention to Kyla for showing determination and bouncing back to get round a very long and tough course after last week’s set back. Great resilience shown. Katy Sugden (82) and Liz Bunn (99) got us all safely back within the top 100. Very well done to all. One more mention to Niamh Bridson Hubbard who very bravely decided to test out an injured ankle but wisely decided to not continue. Best of luck to her in recovering from her injury. We are currently 3rd team in both the 3 and 6 to score so onwards and upwards for Swanley.

In the Senior Mens race, Sam Parsons led the team home with an excellent 7th-place finish in 26:45, followed by U20 athlete Alex Martin, who continued his impressive start to the season with 12th place in 27:25. Justin Strover was next in 20th, closely followed by Jake Leng in 22nd, Harry Fage in 26th, and U20 athlete Benjamin O’Grady in 29th, giving us six runners inside the top 30.

Kevin Fini continued the strong showing in 35th, with Leonardus De Bruyn (43rd) and Jonathan Findell (45th) completing an impressive nine runners inside the top 50. Further down the field, Nathan Clark finished 52nd, followed by Thomas Desborough (54th), David Adams (55th) and Aniket Iyengar (59th), giving us 13 runners inside the top 60. Philip Bunn (110th), Gregory Firth (120th) and Roger Beswick (142nd) also delivered determined performances, while Colin Pearson (196th), Andrew Tutt (241st) and Sheridan Morris (253rd) rounded off the club’s finishers. A huge well done to all 19 runners for their efforts on a challenging course, and another fantastic showing from the club as the cross-country season gets underway.

Slightly earlier in the day, in the Masters race, Andy Lawes took victory in the men’s v70 while Jim Phelan was second in the men’s v75. Well done to both.

The results of the Senior Men and Senior Women count as the second event in the season-long Bennett Cup Handicap series – top 3 on the day were Jasmine (1st), Jake (2nd), and in 3rd Benjamin O’Grady, with the top 3 overall after 2 races Millie, Jasmine and Alex . Results of the Bennett Cup so far are here