• Press Report 22nd December 2008

     
    Ilford Athletic Club successfully hosted their annual 10 mile Cross Country event at Chigwell Row on Saturday morning. Some very unseasonal mild weather with fine winter sunshine brought out some 111 runners to produce the event's largest field for years as athletes battled an extremely demanding new course set entirely within the Woodland Trust Area of Hainault Forest over 3 laps of three and a third miles. The thick mud and hills however took their toll on some 17 athletes who found the going too tough and failed to complete the course.
    James Cotton of Invicta East Kent was quickly to the fore on the first steep muddy climb and as he approached the end of the 1st lap had opened up about 100 metres on last years winner Malcolm Muir from Ilford AC. Woodford Green's Angus Holford was giving chase back in third.
    In the women's race Jo Singer of Victoria Park led from WInchester's Charlotte Bates with Jenny Thomas of Woodford Green just holding third from Bree Nordin of the host club.
    By the end of lap 2 large gaps had started to appear with Cotton away and Muir's chase beginning to look like a lost cause with Holford still gaining. Little had also changed in the women's order except that Nordin had now eased into third.
    Cotton went on to register an excellent win breaking the hour with a fine time of 59 minutes 54 seconds given the conditions with Muir (60.39) losing out in a sprint for 2nd to Holford (60.27) as they sped across the final bridge. John Barker of Thrift Green took the veterans top prize in 6th with Andy Catton of Ilford producing an exceptional run to take the over 50s in 69.24. Fred Bees of Great Bentley took the top MV60 spot.
    In the women's race Jo Singer maintained her advantage to finish in 74.39 from Charlotte Bates(75.20) and Bree Nordin (78.21). With 2 of the first three also veterans, Jenny Thomas of Woodford Green in 4th was was awarded the bronze prize with Nordin taking the FV45 in 78.21 and Naomi Bourne of Victoria Park the FV35.
    In the accompanying mob match based on the positions of each club's first 10 runners home, Ilford AC, drawing on their large pool of 24 competing athletes, took the spoils with 178 points in a closely run affair with Woodford Green 239points, Victoria Park Harriers 318 points and Orion 355 points.
    Scoring runners for Ilford were Muir 3rd, Ray Dzikowski 8th (67.48), Peter Clinch 9th (67.49), Robin Mcnelis 11th (67.54), Andy Catton 17th (69.24), Neil Crisp 19th (71.22), Abdi Berleen 21st (71.45), 25th Matt Maple (72.18), Andy Mason 28th (74.18), Ian Burdin 37th (77.09)
    Other Ilford AC finishers with times were 41st Keith Ennis (78.03), 53rd Mel Jones (84.31), 55th John Mackenzie (84.48), 60th Dianne Crisp (86.19), 63rd Henry Ricketts (87.20), 73rd Nicola Hopkinson (90.25), 74th Chris Evans (90.53), 79th Victoria Morgan (92.09), 84th Sally Gillam (95.30), 86th Graham Williams (97.13), 93rd Carol Muir (2.05.47), 94th Steve Port (2.16.36).
    The race also doubled as the Ilford AC Club 10 mile XC championships and the results were: Men  1 Muir, 2 Clinch, 3 McNelis : Women 1 Nordin, 2 Jones, 3 Crisp
     
    The previous Friday Malcolm Muir had placed fourth in a very high class race at the sunny Serpentine 5k. James Shane (Basildon) had to break the course Under-20 record with 15:16 to get the better of Enfield rival Shaun Collins by two seconds, followed by Victoria Park's Paul Martelletti with 15:26.  This left Muir to fight off the rest of the field, which he did with 16:21, only four seconds off his race best.
     
    With no signs of recent hip injury John Batchelor placed 39th overall in 19:19, sufficient to give him third place and best man in the age-related six-race championship with 90.0%, pipping the absent Dave Cox by 0.4%.  Ilford's Pam Jones, also not racing on Friday, took second place with 92.9% beind Portsmouth's 67-year-old Cecilia Morrison's 95.8%.