Press Report 17th JUne 2014  

GREAT EASTON 5
Sunday 15 June

The Great Easton road race was run a calm Sunday morning over a challenging undulating course around the village of Great Easton, near Dunmow in north Essex. The race this year incorporated the Essex County 5 mile Championship and the endurance squad of Ilford AC were in top form claimed 9 medals which included 9 golds.

The race was won in 25mins 18 secs by Paul Whittaker of Southend Ac with Ilford’s Kiwi Blair McWhirter second in 25m 58s. Whittaker was disqualified from the Championship for not wearing his club colours and hence McWhirter won the county title, trophy and gold medal, his first since fulfilling the residence period to compete in county races. In form Malcolm Muir was placed fifth in 27m 08s and was third in the county race and won the Essex MV40 title. Tom Gardner was backing up well his teammates in 9th spot with 27m 55s. the three combined to win the Essex team title.
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Next home for the club was Steve Philcox in 17th with 29m 00s to place third in the Essex MV40 category, with Kevin Newell 21st in 29m 42s and Sam Rahman
recording 30mins exactly in 24th spot. Neil Crisp is returning to from and recorded 30m 54s for 6th in the county MV50 group and Rob Sargent was 6th in the MV50 age group with 38m 37s.

Also in action for the men were Mike Horsey (49th 32m 3s) Declan Cullen (76th 37.02) Billy Green (104th 38.15) and Satha Alaganandasundaram (109th 38m 51s)

Krystle Balogun led the way for the Ilford women in a fine 8th palce in 33m 03s. Bree Nordin finished 17th with 35m 14s to win the FV55 category and Mel Jones was one place behind in 35m 30s which gained her her first county title as she took the gold in the FV45 section. Dianne Crisp crossed the line 30th in 39m 15s, which gave the club an expected team bronze medal for Nordin, Jones and herself. Carol Muir continues to improve with every race in 47th with 44m 31s and the evergreen Pam Jones took another county gold as she gained the FV65 county title by just 17 seconds in a close race with Barbra Law of Great Bentley,

Another strong set of results form Ilford AC endurance runners who are producing improved results race by race.

Report by Red Hank
Havering Midweek 5 miles – Elvis 2
Tuesday 10th June
There were some great Ilford ACperformances at the second leg of the Elvis series, hosted by Havering 90joggers which saw both the Mens and Ladies teams win the team prizes and both  races. Blair McWhirter brought the race to a finish in a time of 26.08, followed by Malcolm Muir in 2nd in a time of 26.32. The 3 man team was closed by TomGardner in 4th position in a time of 26.45.
The Ilford vests were there in highnumbers and the winning team were supported well by the rest of the team; StevePhilcox (28.51) Kevin Newell (29.23) Kevin Wotton (29.55) TonyHyde (30.07) Neil Crisp (30.41) Michael Horsey (32.30) RohanAlexander (33.10) Bradley Brown (33.56) Terry Knightley(34.07) Andy Catton (34.42) Satha Alaganandasundaram(38.29) Billy Green (38.49) Steve Cheal (41.09) Sukhi Jandu(44.36). There were 154 finishers in the Mens race.
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In the ladies race Krystle Balogunrecorded her second win for the Elvis season in a time of 32.18. The ladies team trio was completed by Mel Jones, who took the 1st vet45 prize(35.07) and Jenni Sheehan (35.15) who are both running well at the moment and
finished in 5th and 6th positions respectively to take the team prize. Like the men the ladies were out in full strength with some great performances:
Bree Nordin, taking the 1st vet55 prize(35.40), Nicola Hopkinson (38.32), Dianne Crisp (38.38), Carol Muir who achieved a pb of over a minute (43.23), Nicola Chester (43.32), newcomer Julia Galea (46.33) and legend Pam Jones (47.21)
There were 85 ladies who finished therace.
Thanks to Havering 90 for organising the 5 mile race over a new 2-lap course around the twisty turvy refurbished Raphaels park, the unexpected T-shirts in the goody bags
and the free sports massage which some of our ladies made the most of. We are looking forward to leg three of the series on Tuesday 17th June at Eton Manor.

Report by Jenni Sheehan