Press Report 19th March 2019
Essex Road Relays
Harwich
Saturday 16th March 2019
Over 110 teams descended on the quiet sleepy town of Harwich on Saturday morning for the annual running of the Essex Relay Open and Veteran Championships.
Conditions were very challenging with strong coastal winds that were particularly harsh for the runners on the second half of the course.
Despite this the Ilford AC Mens Senior squad all posted some very impressive times to finish 6th overall on the day with all runners finishing under 20 mins on their 5k legs (Amin Koikai 16:43, Alex Richards 16:31, Tom Gardner 17:08 Malcolm Muir 18:26)
In the veterans category the Iford M40 squad finished 16th (Dennis Briggs 22:29, Julian Fabian 20:26, Trevor Robinson 24:41) and the M50 squad came in 14th (Tony Nixon 20:35, Andy Catton 22:49, Ernie Forsyth 24:55).
Although the Ilford ladies were unable to complete a full team, 2 ladies did travel up for the competition and both posted very impressive times in the conditions.
Zuzanna Sinalova ran the first 5k leg in 20:50, handing over to Gaye Young who ran 24:53.
Brentwood half Marathon
Sunday 17th March
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The annual popular Brentwood half marathon took place last Sunday over a rolling route and had 2360 finishers.
Ilford AC had 10 entries and were led home by Dan Holeyman, who has shown much improved form over the winter in 50th spot with a new personal best time of 1hr 25 mins 18 secs. Next in for the club was the ever reliable Bree Nordin in 1hr 38 mins 07 secs to place 26th lady and win the F60 age category. Alan pearl also ran a personal best time of 1 hr 39 mins 48 secs in 375th and Tony Young was another to improve his best time for the distance with 1 hr 46 mins 15 secs for 612th. Rachel Halpin was 1302nd with 2 hrs 1 min 50 secs, while Julia Galea recorded 2 hrs 1 min 20 secs as 295th lady and 3rd in the F60 grouping.
Ray ‘Sparra’ Everingham ran the distance for the first time to finish in 1588th with 2 hrs 09 mins 53 secs while Frieda Keane came home 1686th in 2 hrs 10 mins 34 secs.
Stuart Bennett race walked the event recording 2 hrs 14 mins 50s ecs and the team was completed by Mandeep Bassi in 2 hrs 26 mins 56 secs.
Colchester 15
Sunday 17th March
The Colchester 15 mile is a two lap road race around the quiet countryside of Essex around the villages of Langham and Boxted. The openness of the course resulted in the runners being exposed to a chilly stiff breeze which took the edge off of the finishing times. The two runners from Ilford Ac were running this rare distance for the first time. and produced noteworthy results. Sam Rahman came in 10th in 1hr 35 mins 32 secs and Nicola Hopkinson crossed the line in 2 hrs 6 mins 40 secs in 73th spot, 14th female and finished runner up in the F55 age category to take home a trophy
Fleet Half Marathon
Sunday 17th March
Sunday saw the 38th running of the Fleet Half Marathon which featured 3 runners from Ilford AC.
Much like all races this weekend the race had runners battling the wind as well as the course on the day.
First home for Ilford, fresh from his performance in the Essex Championships only the day before, was Malcolm Muir posting a time of 1:17:48 for 69th place.
Malcolm was followed by Paul Holloway who impressed with a time of 1:22:18 for 164th place after a long lay off from injury.
Completing the Ilford trio was Carol Muir who was pleased with her time of 2:31:17
