• Press Report 28th July 2008

    European Masters Championships

    The exceptional exploits of Ilford AC’s top two vets continues unabated with Pam Jones winning a European Championship title in Ljubljana in the 10000m in a season’s best time of 50.41.03 in the over 70 age group. She won by over 3 minutes on Thursday night in dark and humid conditions from Sweden’s Brigitta Eklund with Estonia’s Kazimira Luznik trailing behind in third.  Eklund later had her revenge over the 1500m in a very tightly fought race where less than a second separated the Swede in 1st from second placed Jones in 6.55.76.
     
    John Batchelor fought hard in the mens over 65 10000 metres, against tough opposition which included the European and World Champions in the field. Batchelor was in contact with Austrian, Erwin Ogner in 3rd place throughout but finally lost out by 15 seconds despite a spirited finishing sprint.  The leaders were also neck and neck throughout with European holder Peter Lessing getting the better of World champion Vincent Basista, a minute ahead of the Ilford runner.
     
    Both Pam and John compete for medals in the 5000 metres later in the week.
     
    Ilford’s third competitor was David Kates who competed in the 5000 walk recording an excellent time of 28.54.52 for 11th place.  David will be walking over the longer distance of 20 kilometres later in the week.
     
    Vets League

    Following a disappointing 7th place in the third match of the Veteran’s league, the squad were looking for better in the final match on 14 July at Hemel Hempstead.
     
    The evening started with the 2000m walk where Mick Sutton placed 5th in 13.28.6 in the over 35 age group while Steve Allen secured 1st in the M50 age group with 10.30.7.  While that was going on Henry Ricketts and Ray Rawlinson threw the javelin 28m45 and 14m79 for 4th and 5th in the M35 and M50 categories.
     
    To break up the routine of the javelin Henry and Ray ran the 800m during throws and were joined by Andy Mason who had competed in the high jump.  Henry ran a PB of 2.28.6 for 5th while Andy also ran a PB of 2.46.6 in the B string race for 5th. Ray's 2.49.2 carried on the trend of 5th places.
     
    In the 200m, Henry was admittedly disappointed with his time of 26.1 for 5th, while Andy who is more of a long distance runner competed for the points and finished 6th in 37.1. Ray's 29.1 put him in 5th in his age group and John Batchelor who had been patiently waiting to do something on the track covered the distance in 32.1 for 4th in the M60 age group.
     
    In the long jump, Henry leapt 5m01 for 4th while Ray leapt 3m41.  Andy competed well in the 3000 to finish in 6th with a time of 11.28.0 and John produced a stunning last two hundred to secure the only Ilford win of the day in 10.55.6.  The last event of the evening saw Ilford run the 4x200 relay. 6th place was secured with a time of 2.05.9.
     
    Ilford finished 6th on the evening and 5th over the four legs.
     
    Davos Mountain Marathon

    Ultra distance king, Peter Spelman competed in the legendary body sapping mountain marathon in the alpine town of Davos.  The race is not for the faint hearted with an endless series of intimidating hills, totalling a rise of nearly 500 metres and a total of 1000 metres of often steep downhill descents.
     
    Peter recorded a personal best in his fourth outing in this event with 3.54.25 for 23rd overall and 3rd in his age group and proclaimed that he was “delighted with his performance” but concerned that his “shaky legs will struggle to do a days work tomorrow”.
     
    Harlow 10 mile

    Rohan Alexander recorded an outstanding personal best of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 30 seconds for 84th place in the Harlow ten mile despite the hilly, hot and humid conditions last Sunday.  He was closely followed by Breege Nordin in 1:14.04 for 112th place, which she was disappointed with, despite giving her a second place in her age group.  Gurmit Sahota followed Breege in 177th with 1:20.45 while Gerry Trill completed the Ilford team with 1:26.35 for 245th.  Meanwhile in central London, Malcolm Muir competed well for 3rd place in the ‘Serpentine Last Friday 5k’ with a good time of 16:24.
     
    Southern Womens League

    Fourteen year old Melodie Ihuoma was an isolated but talented star in Mile End last Saturday as she was sole representative in the Ilford Team in the Southern Women’s League.  With only two previous athletics competitions behind her she lacked some experience and struggled in the early stages of her first event, the long jump.  
    With two no jumps in the first two rounds, the pressure was on to record a top five place in the third to gain extra rounds, which she did in recording 4.24m to put her in third place.  She had taken off from her wrong foot and appeared to twist her leg on landing as she limped away from the pit.  Fortunately it was not serious and during the short break she gathered herself and went on to lead in the 4th round with 4.60m which was never surpassed.  With some extra work on her run up, she will surpass this distance by a considerable amount in the future.  Later on in the day she won the discus by over two metres with a distance of 20.27 metres which was two metres ahead of the opposition and came a creditable third place in the 100 metres with 13.3 and an overall (team) score of 28 points.  The team manager will be working to get a bigger team for the next match at Braintree on 30th August.