Summer of SAL
Summer of SAL
Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 18/05/25–
KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
18 May 2025
But first, let’s kick off with a summary of results from this week.
A quick mention for David Mohring, who completed the Grand Raid Ventoux by UTMB in 22 hours and 26 minutes. The race consisted of 77 miles, 6,000 metres of ascent including an ascent of Mont Ventoux. Kudos to you!
It was a successful evening at the VAC 5 miler on Tuesday in Battersea Park, with Clare, Lin and Vic cleaning up the medals for their age categories!
Barny Day – 27:39
Patrick Nation – 28:45
Sam Taylor – 29:38
Clare Elms – 31:34
Lin Skinner – 32:38
Vic Buck – 33:24
The winning glow
We had a group of members travel to Snowdonia to compete in various ultra-trail races, not for the faint-hearted!
100 miles
Alex Hamlet – 27:30:43
100k
Arejeet Nag – 23:35:44
Nick Moss – 23:36:45
James Bates – 25:24:29
50k
Zuzana Nemeckova – 11:43:50
Moving onto results from today:
Chislehurst Half
Congratulations to Vic who won the women’s race!
Phil Sanders – 81:07
Vic Cartwright – 93:54
Alex Robbins – 1:40:18
Lesley Mentink – 1:54:29
All smiles
Hackney Half
George Russell – 81:33
Rory Mahon – 83:34
Stuart Jennings – 86:53
Peter Range – 90:05
Sally Urquhart – 97:35
Will Wright – 1:59:48
Manchester Great Run
Owen Hind – 31:01
Cam Dockerill – 31:12
The second KYAL fixture took place today. There was a huge turnout at Norman Park in Bromley with around 40 youth athletes as well as a handful of coaches and officials. Nip and tuck the whole way in the 8-team First Division with Kent floating around in the middle positions for most of it – too close to call on where we finished!
Full results to follow next week.
Make sure to sign up for our next club event, the Early Summer Meet, taking place on Thursday 29th May. If you won’t be participating but still want to be involved, we are looking for volunteers to help! Register using the links further down in the newsletter.
Lastly, we would like to remind all members to please be aware of your surroundings when wearing headphones or carrying your phone near the track (Ladywell Fields).
Onto the Beckenham Relays next Wednesday and we’re rooting for gold! A full report will be included next Sunday.
Alex making a steeple look graceful
We had some very tough competition – Dacorum, Cambridge Harriers, and Dartford in particular. No one was put off though, fantastic work by everyone including our many SAL debutants! We finished 4th (of six) in our match thanks to everyone’s determination.
We had a really inspiring day of competing from our junior athletes; stand-out performances are Phoebe Folarin winning the High Jump on her debut with 1.54 and two great runs in the 400m from John Flack (50.1) and Louis Holley (52.6). Our sprint squad saw some great PB’s for Robin Clarke in the 100m and 200m and Jeffrey Senoo in the 200m. Tyler Woode dug deep to deliver for both the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams.
Our senior athletes shone bright with Amy Clements winning the 3000m after lapping the field, Dame winning the 5000m in style, and Mo Elmi taking top spot in the 1500m and running a blistering 4x400m leg. James Bowler continues to be our multi-event legend doing 7 out 8 field events, and co-captains Alex, Jo and Sofia powered through 5 events each.
The golden duo
Special mention to the Hugh and Lucas Stickland father-son double act, with Hugh scoring points in Triple Jump and Lucas stepping up to debut on the 3000m Steeplechase with a great run.
Relay teams ended the day – we had one 4x100m team and two 4x400m teams. These are great fun to finish the day, so please stay if you can and we can travel home as a group and get some drinks.
Girl power
For those interested in the SAL, join the WhatsApp group:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EQdOV4pQVFB0ajDIfe2cvh
Mark your calendars for the June, July and August dates! Next up is Woodford on Sunday 22 June.
Dates and Venues are listed on each tab of the spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wt4XhW98Vowr3sCmhneGMvpnyd7PZ5uVSk7UPX2B0Q4/edit?gid=0#gid=0
A bit about SAL: we are in Division 2 (of 3) and there are 3 matches left this year.
Every Kent AC member with an EA number can enter. You enter by adding your name to the spreadsheet or messaging a captain or coach. Enter your name now for any event on any of the dates.
Our team number is K for A-string and KK for B-string. You will see these letters go next to your name on the sheet once we select the scorers. If there are more than 2 athletes for an event you will be a non-scorer, which means you pick up a number and wear that. Everyone gets to race, whether or not you’re scorer!
Sofia, Jo and Alex
SAL Captains
Sign up for our first Club Championships of the year!
When?
The evening of Thursday 29th May
Where?
Our home track, The Alex Yee Ladywell Arena
Which events?
200m (U11+)
800m (U13+)
3000m (U17+)
How do I enter?
Following feedback in previous years of wanting results to be official (i.e., on powerof10) and also to use photofinish (especially requested by sprinters, but not exclusively), we have gone to the trouble of getting an event license from UKA and hiring photofinish. This comes at a cost so whilst we have tried to keep entry fees at a minimum we are taking entry fees. Please enter at OpenTrack using the link below:
https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2025/GBR/kent-ac-esm/
Can my friend in another club enter?
Per our licensing, this is an Open Meeting. Kent AC members get discount on entry, however.
I don’t want to compete, can I still come?
We would love for you to come spectate and/or help out, please see our volunteer sheet and add your name and how you can contribute.
Will there be refreshments?
We will set up a water station but to keep the budget and organising to a minimum, refreshments will only be available for officials and volunteers. Please feel free to bring your own.
Treasurer
David Devlin, who has been our Treasurer for several years, is stepping down in November, which creates a vacancy. If you feel you can fill this role, please contact David or Phil Marsden for more details of what is required.
The Treasurer is a statutory role, and also required by EA. While not technically demanding, the job requires time commitment and some experience of financial roles and accounts preparation.
If a suitable candidate is not available, then Phil Marsden will step into the role, creating a vacancy for Club Secretary.
Club Secretary
The Club Secretary is also a statutory role, and involves coordinating much of the administration of the club. Again, it requires commitment, and availability to attend committee meetings. Contact Phil Marsden if you’re interested in knowing more about the role.
Coaching Secretary
The Coaching Secretary provides oversight and coordination of the coaches at the club. They should be a current UKA coach. A full role description is available from Phil Marsden or Dan Ansell.
Membership Secretary – shared role
The club is looking for somebody to assist the current Membership Secretary in her role. The duties are not onerous, but would require attendance at committee meetings.
If you’re interested in any role, or if you’d like to get involved with club administration in any way, please contact Phil.
Two things to emphasise – being an official is not physically or technically demanding, it mostly just involves time spent watching and enabling events.
A quick Q&A about being an official:
How do I start to be an official?
Initially, do a couple of courses (online or in person) taking a couple of hours, then attend events. Roles for those with little previous experience are undemanding – extra hands are always needed.
What does an official do?
It depends on the role, but it can be anything from monitoring the track or raking a long jump pit to being a timekeeper or overseeing a field event, with sufficient experience. The level of responsibility you have depends largely on what you want to take on and your experience. Certain events cannot take place without the adequate number of officials, or officials at the right level – every field event should have a L2 qualified official, for example.
Is there a requirement for technical knowledge?
Initially very little is required, and is covered by level 1 courses. As you progress up the levels then more knowledge is required, but easily obtained.
If I sign up, does that oblige me to attend all events?
No, you can attend those that fit your schedule. However, to get to level 2 and beyond, when you’d become more useful, you need to attend a minimum number of events.
Is it possible to participate and be an official?
This can happen, particularly at SALs, if the event schedule allows. If you’ve signed up to participate in a SAL, which may be just one event in an afternoon, consider being an official for some other events while you’re there.
Is there a cost?
All training courses are covered by the club, as well as travel to events. In addition, lunches are usually provided for officials at events.
What officials roles are there?
Field official
Starter
Track official
Timekeeper
Endurance (eg road, cross country)
Bear in mind that for SALs and KYALs you can contribute to the team’s success by being an official – the club gets points for each official as an incentive to supply them.
And you get to spend a few hours watching athletics and enabling events to take place, which is much appreciated. If you’re a parent with a child at a KYAL or a SAL, for example, you might consider helping out with events, whether it’s retrieving a discus or monitoring a relay handover.
In order to put on events ourselves, we need more L2 qualified officials in all disciplines. This requires commitment and time (generally 10 events to get from L1 to L2) – however we wouldn’t want to discourage anybody from contributing who doesn’t want to commit to progressing, all assistance is welcome.
If you are interested in becoming an official, please contact Phil Marsden or Jacqueline Francis to find out more.
(Please note that the dates marked tbc are provisional)
May
21 – Beckenham Relays – Beckenham Place Park
29 – Early Summer Meet – Alex Yee Ladywell Arena
June
3 – Track social
5 – Assembly League – Crystal Palace Park
11 – Kent AC Wednesday social run
18 – Dulwich Relays – Dulwich Park
22 – SAL – Woodford Green
July
1 – Track social
3 – Assembly League – Sutcliffe Park
5 – KYAL – Medway Park
9 – Kent AC Wednesday social run
13 – SAL – Eltham
26 – (tbc) Ron Hale Open
August
5 – Track social
7 – Assembly League – Victoria Park
16 – KYAL – Dartford
30 – SAL – Basildon
September
4 – Assembly League – Beckenham Place Park
7 – Big Half – London
11 – (tbc) Late Summer Meet
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Buy your track pass here.
The usual track times are:
Tuesday 17:30 – 20:45
Thursday 18:00 – 20:30
Sunday 09:00 – 11:30
Please note that individuals are permitted to do their own sessions during club opening times, but coached group sessions continue to take priority.
Track Pass – Juniors
Please purchase your £6.50 junior monthly track pass in advance here. When purchasing the track pass can parents/guardians please enter the athlete’s name when completing the transaction.
Please see a helpful FAQs guide here
The Alex Yee Arena has opening hours dedicated to the public. While during these times the Kent AC track pass is not valid, members can pay for an individual session.
Session times are:
Monday: 07:00 -15:00
Tuesday – Thursday: 1300 -1700
Friday: 07:00 – 15:00
Saturday – Sunday: 09:00-15:00
Price:
Adult resident: £2.70
Adult non resident: £3.00
Junior (U16): £1.30
The Kent AC track pass continues to be required for training on Tues/Thurs evenings and Sunday mornings.
Track staff have encouraged people to double check the opening hours before their training session, as they may occasionally be closed for school sport days and football friendlies. Hours can be checked here. This will likely suit members who can’t make training sessions but would like to train in the morning/lunchtime/evening.
Pay as you go fees can either be paid via cash to the desk or using the Better app (note: staff are working to add the sessions to the app).
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