Veteran athletes enjoy busy day of racing at Dartford on Saturday as Olympian Andrew Graffin is among the competitors

Jonathan Tipper, who won the bronze medal in the British Masters Championships at Wallsend, was a clear M40 winner with a decisive second half of the race.

Last year he was second to Kent AC clubmate Ben Hope, who was fourth here as Kent dominated winning by 35 points.

Second individual was Medways Anthony Webb, who was the leading W45 runner ahead of Hope and led his team to silver. Dartfords Barry Stephenson was a close third.

It was close for third team with a single point between three teams and it was Tonbridge who came out on top with their star name undoubtedly their second scorer Andy Graffin.

The Sydney Olympic 1500m runner was 15th and their second scorer as he eases back to competitive racing. He was fourth M45.

He was not the only 2000 Olympian at the venue as the javelin silver medallist Steve Backley was in attendance with his family supporting his sister Julie, who was the first W50.

The women normally run with the M60+ but because of the high numbers they got their own race this year and the three main age groups were combined and the first three overall won a title which are given in 10-year age groups though athletes are identified within five year bands.

W45 Carole Coulon, a former South of England champion and BMAF runner-up, dominated and won the womens overall contest by 15 seconds and her age group by 45 seconds from Joanne Rodda and Ashley Pearson and led Blackheath to team victory.

Backley was the first W50 albeit behind the leading W55 who was former overall winner Maria Heslop.

Heslop won her age group by over 90 seconds from team-mate and another former overall winner Tina Oldershaw as Tonbridge dominated with Paddock Woods Harriot Sinclair third, although Tara Taylor, a W55 scoring for a W45 team, was ahead but ineligible.

Joanne Stephens-Smith was the first W60 in ninth overall.

W40 Hannah Roberts was the leading W35-44 performer and she won easily from the Kent trio of Victoria Cartwright, Nesrin Sabanci and Elinor Skinner as they easily won team gold with Tonbridge and  hosts Central winning the other medals.

While the event is open to W35s, the take-up suggests it should be a W40 race only as the leading W35 Charlotte Warren was only 15th woman overall.

The first race of the day was the M50 event and that resulted in an easy win for Sevenoaks Allan Lee. Lee, new to the age group this year, has dominated his category in the Kent League this winter and he won by around 100 metres from Kents Phil Sanders who was also having his first run in the event as a M50.

Kent also had third through William Pitt who had won the age group in 2022 and again they won easily as they beat Folkestone by 34 points with all four scorers in the top 10.

Folkestone were led in by Stephen Male in fourth who was the leading M45.

Graeme Saker, a 3:42.66 1500m runner at his peak, was a big M60 favourite and having dominated the Kent Leagues this winter by a huge margin he duly won the title 10 years after he won the M50 crown. He was a couple of seconds slower than the fastest woman Coulon and they would have normally been in the same race.

However, Sakers win was not as clearcut as the form book suggested.

Andy Howey had been third 10 years ago and a multiple medallist in this event over the years but after a serious health issue he went into the race not having raced at all since early 2020. But he showed no signs of rustiness or caution and was well clear initially although eventually Saker, a British and Ireland Masters International winner, pulled him back to win by six seconds with Kents Chris Lydon third.

Howey had the consolation of leading Tunbridge Wells to a clear win but it was close for second with a single point again separating second to fourth with Sakers Tonbridge pipping Kent and Dulwich.

That was particularly frustrating for AWs Steve Smythe, who had won a team gold 50 years ago at Dartford in the then youngest age group (U15 boys) and had he been four seconds faster, he would have won a team silver in the oldest team age group.

Maidstones Stephen Payne was first M65, well ahead of Smythe.

The M70 race was held with the M60s as there Alan Newman, the 2014 M60 winner, followed on from the Kent Leagues where he has also dominated proceedings and he won by 45 seconds from defending champion Julian Spencer-Wood.

The over-65 women ran with the older men and Janet Lenton won gold by two minutes.

M40 (8km): 1 J Tipper Kent 25:45; 2 A Webb Med M45 25:53; 3 B Stephenson Dart 25:56; 4 B Hope Kent M45 26:01; 5 M Evans B&B 26:03; 6 J MacDonald Camb H 26:53; 7 J Lane M&M M45 27:01; 8 S Coombes Dart 27:04; 9 E Steele TWH 27:08; 10 B Day Kent 27:10; 11 P Lighting Kent 27:15; 12 J Smith Ton 27:17; 13 S Evans Kent 27:20; 14 W Senbanjo PWR 27:28; 15 A Graffin Ton M45 27:28; 16 C Compton Kent M45 27:43; 17 C Mullin Kent Kent M45 27:50; 18 A Harris Kent 27:52; 19 T Woolley Ton 28:10; 20 S Hodges Camb H 28:12

M45: 7 N Wright M&M 28:17; 8 J Rendall Ton 28:22

TEAM: 1 Kent 26; 2 M&M 61; 3 Ton 71; 4 B&B 72; 5 Dart 72; 6 Camb H 104

M50 (8km): 1 A Lee Sev 27:39; 2 P Sanders Kent 27:57; 3 W Pitt Kent 28:12; 4 S Male Folk M45 28:15; 5 T Sloan Kent 28:25; 6 R Tomlinson M&M M55 28:27; 7 G Whitlock Inv 29:09; 8 L Ercolani B&B 29:11; 9 R Burford Dart 29:12; 10 M McCartney Kent 29:30; 11 J Addison Beck 29:35; 12 A Featherstone M&M 29:39

M55: 3 A Rodgers M&M 29:46; 4 K Kilidzia Folk 29:52; 5 J Gevers Kent 30:18; 6 G Kitchingham Orp 30:47; 7 C Poulton Camb 30:54; 8 T Sowter BV 31:12

TEAM; 1 Kent 20; 2 Folk 54; 3 M&M 83; 4 B&B 111; 5 Ton 123

M60 (5km): 1 G Saker Ton 19:03; 2 A Howey TWH 19:09; 3 C Lydon Kent 19:33; 4 S Moss Beck 19:41; 5 T Jessen Folk 19:42; 6 G Turner TWH 20:04; 7 R Beardsworth Kent 20:04; 8 A Durey Cent 20:05; 9 S Georgiadis Orp 20:14; 10 T Tuohy Dulw 20:26; 11 D Sampson Padd 20:29; 12 M Fullilove Dulw 21:02

M65 (5km): 1 S Payne Maid 21:23; 2 S Smythe Dulw 22:25; 3 G Frizzelle G Tri 22:31; 4 A Lawes B&B 22:42; 5 L Arcuri B&B 22:50; 6 J Woolley M&M 23:05; 7 J Barron Kent 23:10; 8 T Orr Dart 24:27

TEAM: 1 TWH 21; 2 Ton 43; 3 Kent 43; 4 Dulw 44; 5 Maidstone 49; 6 M&M 72

M70 (5km): 1 A Newman Ton 22:28; 2 J Spencer-Wood Kent 23:13; 3 C Dellow Dart RR 24:01; 4 M Ellsmore Camb H 25:16; 5 S Clark Cant 25:34

M75 (5km): 1 1 V Thomas G Tri 30:27

W35 (6km): 1 H Roberts Dart W40 19:16; 2 V Cartwright Kent W40 20:01; 3 N Sabanci Kent W40 20:14; 4 E Skinner Kent W40 20:20; 5 T Nguyen B&B W40 20:23; 6 E Brookes CPA W40 20:28; 7 C Day Ton W40 20:30; 8 C Warren Ton 20:58; 9 C Bates Maid 21:00; 10 C Hammond M&M W40 21:20; 11 V Eames TWH 21:35; 12 N Susans Lark W40 21:37

TEAM: 1 Kent 9; 2 Ton 29; 3 Central 37; 4 Dart 49

W45 (6km): 1 C Coulon B&B 19:01; 2 J Rodda Sev 19:46; 3 A Pearson B&B 20:16; 4 C Fenwick Sev 20:30; 5 J Backley Camb H W50 20:36; 6 E Owen Ton 20:52; 7 T Taylor TWH W55 21:05; 8 A Osborne Beck 21:09; 9 P Pilbeam Ton W50 21:12; 10 T McPherson M&M 21:14; 11 L Knight Ton W50 21:29; 12 K Marchant Beck W55  21:32

W50: 4 R Fagg Ton 21:46; 5 C Oliver Camb W50 21:56; 6 J Holford TWH 22:07; 7 A Farrall TWH 22:11; 8 S Spalding Kent 22:14

TEAM: 1 B&B 18; 2 Ton 26; 3 TWH 41; 4 Beck 58; 5 Camb H 63

W55 (6km): 1 M Heslop Ton 19:17; 2 T Oldershaw Ton 20:56; 3 H Sinclair PW 21:30; 4 C Bond Camb H 23:03; 5 L Pitcairn-Knowles Ton 23:31; 6 R Baker Camb H 23:40; 7 J Leng PW 23:51; 8 C Curtis Folk 24:19; 9 J Stephens-Smith PW W60 24:22; 10 M Hine Camb H 24:23

W60: 2 G Arnott Beck 25:31; 3 R Haydon-Jones Kent 25:35

TEAM: 1 Ton 8; 2 Camb H 20; 3 Kent 47

W65 (6km): 1 J Lenton Orp 25:00; 2 E Batty Cant 27:07; 3 S Richardson TWH 27:21

W70: 1 B Ockendon I&I 28:02; 2 C London Orp 28:18