Press Report -Kilmington Kanter

The inaugural running of the Kilmington Kanter on Good Friday saw a good turnout of Honiton Running Club members. The race is a multi-terrain 7 mile race in the woods, fields and roads around Kilmington with money raised going to the primary school. The race boasts 2 hills of about a mile long each although the Honiton contingent felt they had known a lot worse.  Kevin Hawker was first home for Honiton in 4th place overall in 45 minutes 38 seconds but he would have finished higher if he hadn’t taken a wrong turn. Bruce Strawbridge and Steve Davey had a battle throughout the race and ended up sprinting together at the finish only to be given exactly the same finishing time of 50:33. However, Bruce did just get in front and came 18th to Steve’s 19th place. Richard Harris was next back in 25th place in 52:29 with Howard Bidmead finishing one place behind, having had a great run, to finish in 53:31. Vernon Gillard finished 29th in 54:13. The next three were vying for positions throughout the run and swapping several times. Nick Bradley-Carter was the eventual victor coming 36th in 56:17 with Judy Davey 37th in 56:26 and Pippa Westall 38th in 56:59. John Burgess treated this as a warm up for the Easter Bunny 10k in Yeovilton and was delighted to finish just under the hour in 59:55. Olivia wasn’t far behind coming in 31 seconds and 3 places later. Tracey had her usual fantastic sprint finish to come in 64th in 72:29. Tom Merson of Exmouth Harriers won the race setting the target for future years of 39:07. There were 81 runners.

There was also a 2.5 mile fun run and junior race on offer which was a challenging course through Kilmington woods. Honiton’s Rowan Westall took part coming 9th in 21:55. This was the first run for Wendy Williams after a knee operation and she was pleased with how it went coming 18th in 27:51. There were 20 runners.