Relay keen in Milton Keynes

Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 29/03/26–

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KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
29 MARCH 2026

We’re getting into the business part of the road season now, and today was one of the highlights – the SEAA Road Relay Championships in Milton Keynes, 12 stage for men and 6 stage for women. We sent up 2 men’s teams and one women’s, plus some juniors, and had some very good results – the men finished 7th and 26th, the women 13th. Best of all, the U17 team of 3 juniors came 2nd! Full report below.

The performances today bode well for the National Relays in two weeks time. Meanwhile, many Kent members were doing their longest run of the training block, although some had races. Tim Sharp ran Gent marathon in 2:59:08, Nicky Hayes ran Monsal half, a hilly Peak District trail run, in 1:51 (1st VW60), Jeremias Kempke ran Berlin half in 74:37 with Ivona Gongolova running 1:43:23 in the same race, in which our ex-member Phil Sesemann ran a one second PB in 61:21.

Over in Poland, a few of our older athletes have taken over from the World performers last weekend at the European Indoors Masters championships. Events are continuing all week, so we’re only reporting halfway through their action, but Joe Appiah won the M55 Long Jump with a British record of 5.87m. He’s also in the 60m final and has the 60m hurdles to come. Emily Murray came 6th in the W45 LJ with a PB of 4.45m, and has the TJ to come, and Lin Skinner came 4th in the W50 5k with 18:52 and 4th in the W50 3000m with 10:52.34. She has the cross country and 1500m to come.

Emily, Lin and Joe in Poland

This week the main event is the Assembly League on Thursday 2nd, at our local venue of Beckenham Place Park, so no excuses for not making it (unless you’ve already headed off for an Easter break) Mails and Whatsapp messages have been sent round, if you haven’t done it before just turn up (30 mins before the start of 1915, the clubhouse is a 10 minute walk to the start line), grab a number and enter it on the online spreadsheet which will be available on the night.

It’s membership renewal time, about half of you have renewed already, which means that half haven’t. Please do so and lessen the stress for our hardworking membership secretaries!

Also, a reminder that we are hosting an open meet on Thursday 30 April, do enter if you can, but also please volunteer to help out, the event can’t happen without officals and helpers.

SEAA RELAYS MILTON KEYNES

Kent sent over 30 runners up to Milton Keynes, where the main team objective was to qualify for the Nationals in 2 weeks time. The men’s A team, short of several of our top stars, came 7th, while the B team came an agonising 26th, out of a 43 complete teams, with 25 teams to qualify automatically for the Nationals. Last year we were in a similar position and had two men’s teams invited, so fingers crossed we make the cut.

Chris Busaileh, the men’s road captain, writes:

 Kent’s men came an impressive 7th at the Southern 12 stage championships in Milton Keynes, improving on the 9th place from the past 2 years. Whilst we are more than capable of medalling at this level, with a number of athletes debuting at the relays and with 7 fast guys to come in for the Nationals, it showcased the depth the club has. The team were around 2 minutes quicker than last year in windy and increasingly wet (and cold) conditions.

Special mention to Noah Armitage Hookes who was (by some distance) our fastest long leg of the day with 26.12. To put that into context, no Kent man has run as quick on that course. At the time of writing, the list of fastest legs hadn’t been published but there only look to be a handful who ran quicker on the day.

Massive thank you to those who turned out and shout out to Josh Correia who stepped in at the last minute to ensure we closed out a B team. 

The women’s team was made up of Molly O’Connor, Katie Good, Florence Ingram, Aisling Ahern, Jemima D’Arcy and Alexa Parker, who came 13th out of 33 teams. As the women don’t need to qualify for the Nationals, they will be doing it all again in a fortnight.

In the U17 3 stage 5k team event, Kent boys gained a silver medal, with Bert Royle running a tremendous 15:53, George Searle 16:49 and Louis Holley 18:19. With several others in this age group also showing great improvement this season, the next generation is highly promising.

EARLY SUMMER MEET 30 APRIL

We can announce that the first Kent AC open meet of the year will be on Thursday 30th April, and will involve two track events and two field events. The schedule will be as follows:

1845 Women’s 200m (U10+)
1905 Men’s 200m (U10+)
1930 Women’s 1500m (U12+)
2000 Men’s 1500m (U12+)

1800 Shot Put (U10+)
1920 Triple Jump (U16+)

Exact timings of field events will be dependent upon the number of entrants and age categories required.

All events will be club championships.

If you would like to enter these events please click through here. Registration is now open.

Please also note that we will need several volunteers to help put these events on. These will be officials to help with the field events – qualifications and experience not required, as long as you can wield a rake or carry a shot – and with setting up, registration and marshalling the track. If you are available and willing to help on the night, please contact Phil Marsden, Dan Ansell or Richard Giles.

EVENT CALENDAR

April
2 – Assembly League – Beckenham Place Park
11 – National 12 Stage Road Relay – Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham
11 – KYAL – U12 – Dartford
25 – KYAL – U14/U16 – Medway
26 – London Marathon
30 – Open Meet – Alex Yee Arena

May
7 – Assembly League – Victoria Park
16 – SAL – Eltham
20 – Beckenham Relays
23 – KYAL – U14/16 – Dartford

June
4 – Assembly League – Crystal Palace
21 – SAL – Watford
24 – Dulwich Relays
27 – KYAL – U14/U16 – Dartford

July
2 – Assembly League – Sutcliffe Park
5 – ROn Hale Open – Alex Yee Arena
19 – SAL – Cambridge

August
6 – Assembly League – Victoria Park
8 – SAL – Dartford
23 – KYAL – U12 – Tonbridge

September
3 – Assembly League – Beckenham Place Park
10 – Late Summer Meet – Alex Yee Arena

EASYFUNDRAISING

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Over 7,000 brands pay easyfundraising a commission when you start your shop through their platform, so you can raise FREE donations for us no matter what you’re buying. These donations really help us out, so please sign up if you haven’t yet. It’s easy and FREE! You can get started at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/kentac

You can also install a helpful Chrome extension, which prompts you to donate whenever doing any online shopping – really handy

TRACK, TRACK, TRACK

Buy your track pass here.

The usual track times are:
Tuesday 17:00 – 20:45
Thursday 17:00 – 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.

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).

KEEP US UPDATED

You can have your say about what goes in the newsletter and keep us apprised of your results or running adventures by emailing the comms team directly here.

The password for the club contacts page here is .

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