Join Abby Hook with a look back at the weekend's sport news from across Kent. Plus we're joined by Olympic prospect James West as he tells us how he's got to shave 14 seconds from his personal best to make the cut.
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00:00 Hello and welcome along to Invictus Sports, the only show on your TV dedicated to wrapping
00:21 up all of Kent's sporting action. I'm Abbey Hook and here's what to expect on this Monday
00:26 the 25th of March.
00:33 On a cliff edge, Dover hang on for another day in the National League South.
00:42 And on the up, Holcombe Hockey Club make premiership promotion on first try.
00:47 And on the path to Paris, Tunbridge Track champion talks to us about his Olympic hopes.
00:55 But first, a round up of the headlines. And the Chatham Heavyweights' Moses Itauma has
01:00 claimed his eighth professional win, with 40 seconds of the first round still remaining.
01:06 The technical knockout over Dan Garber marks Itauma's sixth stoppage inside the opening
01:10 round from his eighth total professional fight. Manager Francis Warren said afterwards that
01:15 the 19-year-old is expected to have another seven fights this year. He also confirmed
01:20 the Medway prospect is in line for a title clash when he heads to Saudi Arabia in May
01:25 on the undercard of the Tyson Fury-Alexander Usyk bout.
01:30 Dover's Jake Dixon had to withdraw prematurely from the Portuguese round of Moto2 at the
01:35 weekend despite getting the initial all clear following his high-speed crash in Qatar. The
01:41 28-year-old temporarily topped the timesheets during Friday's practice sessions at the Portimao
01:46 Circuit. Dixon's participation was dependent on passing a medical after crashing in Qatar
01:51 two weeks before when he was thrown from his bike and suffered a laceration on the lung.
01:57 It was confirmed early on Saturday morning that Dixon was suffering from lower back pain.
02:01 There's now a three-week gap before the next Moto2 round in the US in April.
02:07 A Southern Counties East Premier Division match was abandoned following six red cards
02:12 being handed out to Snodland Town. The West Kent team had four players and two members
02:17 of their management team sent off during the game against Tunbridge Wells. It was then
02:21 called off in the eighth minute of added time. The score was 0-0. Despite suggestions the
02:27 officials were concerned for their safety, the club has since gone on to say it's fully
02:32 cooperating with a league investigation and that it denies media reports.
02:38 Speaking with Football in League 2, Steven Clements' Gillingham were forced to come from
02:42 behind twice to snatch three points from Morecambe as they continued to fight for a place in
02:48 the playoffs. Meanwhile, it was dire straits for Dover as they took on Farnborough in an
02:52 attempt to stretch out their National League South survival. Here's Finn McDermid with
02:56 today's Football Roundup.
02:57 Well, it has been a secret to no one that Dover have had a difficult season. Only three
03:03 wins across the board and as many points as games they've lost. But mathematically, they
03:08 still have a chance to not be relegated.
03:11 The match against Farnborough started unusually well for the Whites. Nick Dembele found the
03:15 back of the net with the beauty of a strike to the back post. It bounced off the woodwork
03:19 to open the scoring.
03:22 But Dover got desperate. A really poor challenge ten minutes on led to a penalty by Aaron Coole.
03:28 It was simple yet did the job to put Farnborough 1-1.
03:32 And right before the end of the first half, Dover's number one came off of his line to
03:36 give Ricky Holmes the easiest goal of his career. A simple chip put Farnborough in the
03:41 lead.
03:42 And it was Coole's header to the back post that sealed Dover's fate. And as the final
03:47 whistle blew, the home fans booed the players out.
03:50 Well, for other National League South teams we saw some more successes. With Maidstone
03:56 joining Tonbridge in victory, Dartford drawing to Hemel Hempstead and Dover continuing their
04:01 winless streak.
04:03 In the table, Dover are still bottom by 10 points. Dartford towing the relegation zone,
04:08 Tonbridge in the mid-table and Maidstone now in fifth place.
04:13 Ahead Truro look for victory against another Kent team. Dover hope for points against an
04:18 inconsistent Welling. And Maidstone head south to Eastbourne.
04:23 Well back to the top of the pyramid and Gillingham beat Morecambe in a close game with goals
04:27 aplenty from Hawkins, Dieng and Mahoney.
04:31 The Gills started from behind after an early slip-up gave Jordan Slough acres of space
04:36 to run into. Minutes later and Hawkins found himself a goal from close range with keeper
04:41 Mair nowhere to be seen.
04:44 The Gills went behind for the second time this match after a poor clearance led to a
04:48 wide open net for Charlie Brown.
04:51 The game was level again after Timothy Dieng's beautiful outside the box shot dipped below
04:55 the keeper's hands.
04:57 And Gillingham scored in the 86th minute with Mahoney faking his way into the box and even
05:03 a deflection from a defender wasn't enough to stop his powerful shot.
05:07 Stephen Clements shared his thoughts on the much needed win.
05:10 "Character takes you a long, long way and I've definitely got a bunch of boys down there
05:15 that I've never questioned their character. They're great to work with, they give their
05:19 all as I've said it before, don't always get it right. But do you know what, I think we've
05:25 created a lot more, the average of shots, average entries into the box, final third
05:30 entries where everyone crosses, they've all gone up over a period of time and I think
05:34 if you keep doing that eventually you are going to like today score a few goals."
05:40 And here is the League 2 table without many games in hand it could be tough to reclaim
05:45 a higher spot above Crawley and Barrow and Gillingham face Cru Alexandra this Friday.
05:50 Unfortunately due to a waterlogged pitch FC Halifax had to postpone their game with Ebsfleet
05:56 only 50 minutes before kick-off.
05:59 In the National League table it's tight all the way down to the bottom with only a few
06:03 points separating Ebsfleet from up to 12th place. In order to get there they need to
06:07 snatch three points from Southend this weekend.
06:11 Finally in the Ithsmean Premier the Chats beat Haringey Borough. Margate saw only a
06:15 point against Enfield and Folkestone won away from home.
06:18 Chatham Town continue their climb towards first place Hornchurch while Folkestone and
06:22 Margate just hope to survive till next season.
06:26 That's all for today's football round-up.
06:29 But that's not all the football news. You can keep up to date with all the latest by
06:33 reading Kent Online.
06:35 But did you also know you can have your weekly digest of non-league news from around the
06:40 county sent directly into your email inbox.
06:43 Just search Kent Online email alerts and sign up on the website for all the latest written
06:47 transfer news, match reports and interviews.
06:50 There's plenty more email alerts too to choose from including all the latest Gillingham news.
06:57 But moving on from football then, let's now take a look at the rest of the weekend's results.
07:03 In rugby it was two wins and a loss for Kent's teams in the National League 2 East with Canterbury
07:08 falling short against Old Albanians on the road.
07:12 Whilst Sevenoaks narrowly bested Dorking and Tunbridge scored nine tries for a strong look
07:17 into the last three games of their campaign.
07:20 In ice hockey the Invicta Dynamo suffered a double loss in the already decided Southern
07:26 Cup, losing out to Slough Jets away from home on Saturday and Chelmsford Chieftains on Sunday.
07:33 All eyes now to the playoff quarter finals this Saturday as they take on Solent Devils.
07:43 But one result this weekend that's deserving of praise goes to Holcombe Hockey's club,
07:49 women's first team, who secure promotion to the Premier Division of English Hockey at
07:54 the first time of asking.
07:56 Their win over Wimbledon 2s gave the Medway side enough points to secure a second place
08:01 finish in the Division 1 South and a spot in the Premiership next season, making the
08:06 first outfit men's or women's to make an immediate return to the top flight since 2017.
08:12 Well Bartholomew spoke to Holcombe player Lucy Wally earlier and started by asking how
08:16 it feels to have achieved such a feat.
08:20 I think it's known to be really hard to do.
08:23 Once you get relegated out of the Prem it's really hard to go back up.
08:27 The fact that we've actually gone and done it in one season I think is a testament to
08:31 the group and our coaching staff and all the support around us.
08:35 I think it's just been a wonderful achievement and I'm so happy for everyone too within the
08:39 team, especially those that have really been here at Holcombe for a really long time too.
08:44 I know how much this means to a lot of people and I'm so happy for the team.
08:49 Of course, we've heard all throughout the season from Nick Banderak, from your team-mates
08:53 that this is the mission, this was the ultimate goal and you got there in the end.
08:58 But for yourself, you actually joined after the relegation.
09:02 How was that for you?
09:03 Something must have brought you to the team, clearly that belief was there.
09:06 Talk to me through that.
09:07 Yeah, so I moved down to London about two years ago.
09:14 I suffered a bit of an injury so I wasn't really playing consistently.
09:19 I decided to move to Holcombe because I can just see from the outset of how the club is
09:25 so well run.
09:26 It is a bit far, it is a trek for a few of our players but I think it's so worth it with
09:33 the dynamic that's there, not only within the team but also within the club and the
09:38 coaching staff.
09:39 A lot of people put a lot of time into us and I think it's so worth the travel for a
09:43 lot of us.
09:44 Yeah, of course.
09:45 Let's talk about that final match on Saturday then.
09:48 It was of course against your previous club, Wimbledon.
09:50 It was quite an eventful game as well, you had Hale in there.
09:54 Talk me through it.
09:55 Yeah, the whole game was a bit bizarre really.
09:58 So we started off in warm-up with some sunshine and then I think it got just before half-time
10:05 and then the Hale just started coming down really hard and the pitch went white.
10:10 So we didn't really know what was going on and then they decided obviously just to call
10:14 it off, postpone the game a little bit until it had melted.
10:19 But luckily we'd put a few goals away I think before that so we were able to settle a little
10:25 bit but we spoke amongst us as a group before we went back out to play again that we need
10:31 to be dialed in from the off and expect anything.
10:35 That's exactly what we did and I think that's what set us up for success for the rest of
10:39 the game.
10:40 And of course it was success that finally got there at the end.
10:43 We've seen the pictures of you all celebrating with your fizzy wine, your champagne.
10:47 No fantastic stuff.
10:49 What's the kind of feeling going forward now?
10:50 Have you had time to think about what next season's going to look like?
10:55 Not quite yet.
10:56 So we still have a couple of games to go.
10:59 So we play Doncaster away on the 7th of April and then if we're successful there we then
11:07 go to the finals at Lee Valley.
11:10 So we've kind of got our concentration on that next.
11:14 We're enjoying the successes and especially over this weekend we definitely enjoyed the
11:17 success of the promotion to the Prem.
11:20 But I think we've just got two more games that we want to get through and to make sure
11:25 that we've really had a full successful season.
11:27 You know, indoor, Prem, promotion, outdoor and then now the Cup.
11:33 Well very best of luck in the Cup and very best of luck for the future as well with the
11:37 club.
11:38 Very impressive stuff there from Holcombe Hockey.
11:42 Holcombe Hockey even.
11:43 What a tongue twister.
11:44 Now we've reached half time which means it's time for a break but coming up we meet the
11:49 Tunbridge Athletics club runner who's hoping to make it all the way onto the world stage.
11:54 Stick around, see you in a few minutes.
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20:03 Well, I caught up with James earlier today and started by asking him how he's feeling ahead of what will be a huge summer.
20:10 Although I'm obviously super excited to try and make Olympic Games and even the Europeans this summer,
20:16 obviously it's very fine margins depending on whether I make it or not.
20:20 So it'll be sort of devastation or glorious joy kind of thing.
20:25 I mean, hard training at the moment. It's a lot of, you know, hard work and I'm pretty tired all the time,
20:29 but hopefully by the end of the season, it'll be well worth it.
20:33 And those fine margins you're talking about, I believe it's about 14 seconds.
20:37 That's the time from your best to sort of the Olympic standard for you to qualify.
20:43 Could you just explain what that is and where you've got to get to?
20:47 14 seconds. It sounds like a decent amount, but it also doesn't as well.
20:51 I try not to look at the final time necessarily as the goal, because at the end of the day,
20:56 I can't necessarily control whether I run that time or not.
21:00 It might just happen on the night. You know, it could be due to the weather, the quality of the competition.
21:05 But what I can control is if I just do things right kind of every day, really eating well, sleeping well,
21:11 obviously training as hard as I can. That time I ran in February was 13, 19.
21:15 We're definitely already a good step ahead of that a month later now in March.
21:20 So I'm really confident. I think we're pretty close to that kind of shape right now to run that kind of time.
21:25 13.05. And as you said, there's only so much preparation you could put in.
21:29 It is about the night, about how you perform on the day.
21:33 How does that feel pressure wise? That must really, we're talking about training physically, but mentally,
21:38 how do you prepare for something like that? I guess I've been doing it for a number of years now.
21:42 So I try not to overthink those evenings. I just go out and run as hard as I can,
21:47 make sure I'm prepared perfectly into that and hope that nothing obscure kind of happens like illness or injury leading in.
21:54 I'd say that the biggest difficulty with our sport is that factor that you have to be ready on one day.
22:02 I remember I've spoken to people about it in the past and that our Olympic trials is always a very,
22:08 very stressful day because that will be at the end of June or start of July.
22:12 And even if I have the qualifying time, I then have to get top three in that race to qualify.
22:18 You just have to do what you can do to prepare perfectly for that day.
22:21 And if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Tell me a little bit about that difference between 3000 metres and 5000.
22:27 I mean, that's almost double. How does the not only the training, but the performance on the day, how does that differ as an athlete?
22:35 It's a good question. The 3000 now isn't even an event in the Olympics or the World Championships outdoor.
22:41 It's mainly only an indoor event, which is always fun because I think the 3000 is actually a very exciting event.
22:47 It's a mix between the 15 and the five in our sport. We talk about two different kind of zones.
22:51 You talk about aerobic and anaerobic, anaerobics without oxygen and aerobic is is with the 1500, for example, is much more anaerobic.
23:00 It's probably like 80 to 85 percent anaerobic, which means it's more of a speed event in that sense.
23:07 The five K is then on the opposite side, very aerobic.
23:10 So it's about 80 to 90 percent aerobic, which means generally it's how good you are efficiently using oxygen, really at high speeds.
23:19 The 3000 kind of combines both, which is why it's a very exciting event, because it allows people from the 15 and the five K to come together.
23:27 I think it's a bit disappointing that the IAF don't have the 3000 as an event because they I actually think it's very, very different to both the 15 and the five.
23:35 But the problem is it probably dispersed too many people across all three events there.
23:42 And James, just to talk a bit more about your journey, I mean, you've been all over the place.
23:45 It seems you went to the US and Oregon training up there.
23:49 You've now moved up north, but bringing it back down south, back down here to Kenya, originally from Thanet, a member of Tunbridge Athletic Club.
23:57 Things have massively taken off. But how important is it for an athlete that hopefully gets all the way to the Paris Olympics to stay sort of with your ground roots where you started here in the county?
24:07 That is super important. Yeah, I've always Mark Cookway was my coach at Tunbridge during my years from about 16 to 18 before I went off to Loughborough University.
24:16 And I've always kept in touch with Mark ever since I left three days at Loughborough, three days at Oregon and even now.
24:23 And I'm actually doing the National Road Relays in two weeks time, which will be in Sutton, Coalfield.
24:27 And that's kind of like a club level me. And I always try and help out when I can.
24:33 I'm very appreciative of the effort and the help that he's given me over the years.
24:37 And he's definitely been a part of my process and journey to get to where I am now.
24:41 So when I'm home at Christmas time and sort of some breaks, I always try and show my face and hopefully inspire some of the younger age groups.
24:49 As I obviously went through those and know what it's like to learn from people now, hopefully my level.
24:55 I'm very appreciative for everything they've done for me and I wouldn't be here now without their help.
24:59 So, yeah, I'm always trying to help out.
25:02 Must be incredibly proud of you as well. Now, talking about inspiring a younger generation,
25:06 give us an idea of what it's like a day in the life of James, of someone training to become an Olympian with these wins behind you.
25:13 What's it like day to day?
25:15 Obviously, what I do is a bit of a luxury. I don't I don't have to do a nine to five job.
25:20 And I'm always very appreciative of that fact.
25:23 So I just make sure I take every sort of hour as an opportunity to get better.
25:28 But day in the life is really training eight to sort of twelve, nine to twelve, nine to one ish.
25:33 And then I get a few hours off in the afternoon and then out again for another double workout.
25:38 So I'm generally training twice a day, very disciplined on the sort of diet side of things and my sleep in bed by ten most evenings.
25:47 It's a disciplined life. And unfortunately, I've had to sacrifice a lot of things along the way,
25:50 like in terms of seeing friends and and stuff like that.
25:54 They all understand what I do and we all keep in touch. And that's nice that they appreciate that.
26:00 James, thank you so much for your time. It was great to talk to you and best of luck. We'll be following your journey.
26:05 Thanks so much, Abby. Appreciate it.
26:09 Well, now that is all the time we have for today's episode.
26:12 But a quick reminder that we won't be here this coming Friday or next Monday.
26:16 That's due to the Easter Bank holidays, of course.
26:18 Hope you're going to be enjoying yours, whatever you're doing.
26:20 But Invictus Sport will be returning on the 5th of April. Plenty of on our website for you to look back on.
26:26 But until then, we're also taking all your submissions for action replays, replay even to send in your clips and pictures.
26:34 If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's of course the segment where we feature pictures and videos of you.
26:39 They came to the audience taking part in sports.
26:43 But as I say, that's all we've got time for on today's episode of Invictus Sports.
26:47 See you again on the 5th of April. Bye bye for now.
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