Christopher Boyce 
Weekly Report, 31st January 2022
By Emma Hanna
As January 2022 ended the runners of A&D continued to produce some great performances. Emma Jenkins ran Ashford Parkrun in 35:51, showing that her perseverance in training is paying off. Meanwhile, Trevor Kay continued his fantastic running streak at London’s Serpentine 5k on 28th January, matching his PB of 16:33 and producing an 82% age grade run.
In cross country, the club had another strong presence at Beckenham Place Park for the South of England Athletic Association (SEAA) Cross Country Championships on Saturday 29th January. In sunny conditions and a balmy 13 degrees, the undulating course offered some firm going with minimal muddy patches. In the Under 20 Men’s race, Jack Hodges achieved 73rd place in a time of 32:10. He was closely followed home by Kieran Hodges, returning from injury in style with 76th place and a time of 33:42.
A&D’s Senior Women gave a strong team performance, running 8km in a field of 366 runners from a wide range of clubs. First home for the club, in 166th place, was Alison Waters (37:30). Alison was followed by Christine Costiff in 184th place (38:16) and Alice Cook in 206th (38:55). In 218th was women’s captain Ailis Goddard (39:38), crossing the finish line with Tracey Calnan in 219th (39:39). In 221st place was Sophie Edmonds (39:44), followed by Emma Hanna in 246th (41:00), Lesley Taylor in 263rd (41:48), and Gill O’Connor in 287th (42:59). Bringing the ladies team home was Massah Cooper in 313th (45:04) and Lucy Johnstone in 352nd (51:15). Lucy showed great dedication to the team by running on her birthday, celebrating by generously sharing out the bubbles with her teammates afterwards.
The Senior Men’s race featured 685 runners from 46 teams running a 12km course. First over the line for A&D in 382nd place was James Booth with a time of 1:03:31. He was followed by Scott Lynch in 391st (1:03:49), Paul Moses in 456th (1:06:17) and Alex Francis in 493rd (1:07:20) who all put on impressive sprint finishes. Next home for A&D were Andrew Noble in 509th (1:07:49) and Steve Hodges in 522nd (1:08:17) who both finished strong. Despite his blistered toes, men’s captain Andrew Beresford had a determined finish in 558th place (1:10:23), with similarly gritty performances by Darren Fagg in 563rd (1:11:11) and Adrian Moody in 565th (1:11:17). Mark Harrison crossed the line in 579th (1:11:51) and despite his injured foot Daniel Head finished in 611th (1:14:03) cheered home by his 9-year-old son Riley who was the day’s A&D mascot.
Subject to final adjudication, provisional results show that the A&D women achieved a creditable 28th position in a field of 40, while the men finished 38th in a field of 46 teams overall.
