Press Report Ilford AC 4th October 2016
PLESHEY HALF MARATHON
Essex Championships
Sunday 2 October
It was a good day for a small Ilford AC squad of 7 at the Essex Half MarathonChampionship as they returned home with 5 medals from the Essex half marathonchampionships held at the picturesque village of Pleshey last Sunday.
The race held around the village country lanes was of high quality which was reflectedin the first three home all breaking the old course record. The leading three ofJames Connor (Kent AC), Paul Molyneux (Springfield Striders) and Ilford’s BlairMcWhirter had a close battle which was only decided in the testing last 3 mileswith Connor taking the honours in 67 mins 44 secs, with McWhirter 2nd in a newpersonal best time of 68mins 09secs and Molyneux third. As Connor is notqualified for the Essex Championships McWhirter retained the title he won lastyear.
Backing him up was Amin Kolkai in 6th spot with 74 mins 10 secs which won himthe M40 category gold medal. There was bronze in this group for Paul Hollowaywho came home third in 1 hr 18 mins 53 secs for 15th overall. These threeIlford athletes combined to finish second team and each added a silver teammedal to add to their individual ones.
Steve Philcox was disappointed with his run finishing 29th in 1hr 25 mins 07secs but still won the bronze medal in the M50 age group.
Next home was Rohan Alexander in 65th who also recorded a new best time for thedistance of 1hr 31 mins 48 secs.
Further down the field of 397 finishers finding the going tough on the day wasSteve parker in 1h 45m 03s in 175th and Peter Spelman with 2h 04m 55s for318th.
Essex Cross Country Relays
Hockley – 24th September
Ilford entered 2 senior teams in this event,but with late withdrawals had torevamp the teams. Opening the account on the 1st leg Tom Gardner put in a solidrun for 4th place in 15-00 . On Leg 2 Usamah Patel drafted in at the lastminute ran 16-11 for 7th place. Club stalwart Malcolm Muir slowlyreturning to fitness took over on leg 3 with 15-27 leaving the stage set forAhmed Abdulle with some ground to make up to storm around the course on the finalleg bringing the team home in 3rd place overall and 2nd fastest time of the dayin 14-15 with the fastest time going to Southend AC’s international AdamHickey. The Ilford B team had track specialist Simeon Balson on Leg 1 clocking17-52 and ex club president Ernie Forsyth on Leg 2 running 21-12.
Other Races
Last Friday saw Ilford’s John Batchelor placing 146th out of 286 runners ofall ages and sexes in the monthly Serpentine 5K race. The Ilford superveteranclocked 21m 54s, knocking 27 seconds off his previous M75 course record. Thisplaces him 3rd on the Run Britain all-time rankings for this sparsely-populatedage group.
Sunday saw Andy Catton competing in the Mind charity 5k at Harrow LodgePark, Hornchuch where he finished 6th and 1st vet. This was an 80% grasscircuit where Catton clocked 21.08
Further afield Declan Cullen made his annual trip to Wales for the Cardiff HalfMarathon. He was rewarded by a good run in this televised event to record a newpersonal best of 1hr 37mins 59 secs for 148th in the large field and 15th inthe M60 age group.