Press Report 3rd March 2008

 

Ilford AC athletes achieved some excellent results on a busy weekend of action. The men's "A" team blasted off to an excellent start in the Essex AAAs Road Relay Champs held on a 3 and a half mile loop surrounding Chelmsford's Melbourne headquarters. Malcolm Muir was in party mood on leg 1 flying round in the 2nd fastest time of the day clocking 18.55 to Basildon's Mark Sandford's 18.48. Rob Nixon took over on leg 2 and it was not long before the Ilford man had erased the slender Basildon lead as a superb turn of speed by the Ilford man put leg 3 man Iain Macdonald squad 43 seconds clear clocking 19.06 at the handover. In the absence of club captain Darren Bottrill,  the club's top under 20 youngster was put in the unenviable position of trying to hold off some very fast Essex Seniors rapidly closing behind. Macdonald battled hard for 21.39 but was unable to send veteran Neil Crisp away on the final leg any higher than 6th position. Crisp fought well losing a place and then regaining one to power home in 21.56 for an excellent 6th overall. The "B" team also flew the club colours well with Steve Cheal (25.58) handing over to Andy Catton (23.27) before passing on to club president John Mackenzie (25.50) and Neil Keane bringing the club home (24.27). Basildon took the gold with Springfield and Chelmsford taking silver and bronze.

Ilford also had 2 teams in the ladies race with the A squad taking 10th place out of 22 finishing teams. This was a race of 3 legs with Bree Nordin leading off with 24.41. Dianne Crisp returned 28.20 leaving Victoria Morgan to close in 27.50. The B squad saw Jenny Crisp clocking 30.19, Pam Jones 30.09, and Lindsey Barker in her first competitive run for a long time hitting 32.13. A very strong Colchester and Tendring Team took the honours from Southend and Chelmsford.

 

Following their exertions of the previous day Malcolm Muir and Bree Nordin were back in action on Sunday  in what were supposed to be "training runs" in the Roding Valley Half marathon, a two lap course starting and finishing at Woodford Green's Ashton Playing fields. However it wasn't long before Muir found himself at the head of the field and was 800 metres ahead at halfway passing through the ten mile mark in 55.02. However towards the latter stages his hamstring began to tighten allowing Shaftesbury's Anton Van Zyl to close the gap. With just 100 metres left a distraught Muir was unable to respond allowing Van Zyl to take the substantial £200 prize in 74 minutes to Muir's 74.13.

Similarly Bree Nordin had entered the race without expectation but found that a rather leisurely time for her, 1.36.35, was good enough for 4th place overall and easily won her the women's over 50 prize. With numbers well down this year, only 521 finishers, Abdi Berleen also finished highly in 63rd position with 1.33.13. 3 places behind in 66th racewalker / runner Steve Allen continued his marathon preparations with 1.34.35. Sukhbinder Jandu was 441st with 2.17.07.

In Friday's Serpentine Last Friday of the month at Hyde Park Nicola Hopkinson ran a very impressive 22.35 for 5k which placed her at the top of her FV45 category, 2nd only to Watford's GB international Danielle Sanderson. Steve Parker competed in the demanding Thanet 20 mile race on a very hilly but scenic coastal course. Parker was using this race as good preparation for next month's Flora London marathon and, battling the wind for the last few miles, was happy with his finishing time of 2 hrs 30.28. 
 

On the young athletes scene the London Borough of Redbridge held their mini marathon trials on a course of just over 2 miles at Hackney Marshes on a breezy Saturday morning. Ilford AC had a very good representation of young athletes and some excellent support from parents and coaches. The youngsters performed beyond expectations with Thomas King and George Hadler setting the mood of the morning running out of their skins and both medalling with 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Boys 11/2 age group. Ciaran Rodway was disappointed by just missing out on automatic qualification with 11th place. Alex Richards and Lydia Hall easily qualified both achieving good 5th places in the boys 13/14 and ladies 15/16/17 races. The club had 3 athletes in the boys 15/16/17 race where the highlight was Ali Yare-Gawow's bronze medal performance. Just behind Jack Webb 5th and Liam Leddy 7th stormed through to complete an excellent day for the Cricklefields club.