Press Report 21st May 2019
Southern Counties Vets Athletics Club (SCVAC)
Lee Valley Sports Centre
Monday 13th May
The first match of the Vets season saw the Men’s team finish the evening in an excellent first place and the Ladies team achieving a creditable fifth.
The match held on Monday 13th May at Lee Valley Sports Centre started with the 2000m walk. Seb Parris achieved a PB finishing first M35 in 9.29.7. He later followed this up with another PB in the 1500m with 4.58.4 for fourth place M35. Steve Uttley won the M50 walk in 11.14.0. In the Ladies walk Emma Dyos came home first W35 in 10.54.5. Rachel Lawless completed the clean sweep of first places with a time of 12.22.3 in the W50 age group.
In the 100m Sam Malekout (M35) was second in 12.3. Due to his versatility he also finished second in 54.9 for the 400m, first in the Pole Vault with 2m 20 and third in the Long Jump with 4m 97. His Shot of 7m 08 secured fifth.
Henry Ricketts came down an age group to finish fourth M40 in 13.4 following this up with fifth in the 400m in 66.9. In the M50 Long Jump the leap of 4m 38 placed him third. A PB in the M50 Shot of 8m 55 secured fourth.
Tony Nixon filled a gap to run the M50 100m easing to fourth place in 23.5. In his more favoured event of 1500m he competed as M60 finishing third in 5.23.3.
Gerald Daniel ran the M60 short sprint finishing third in a split race in a time of 15.4.
David Butler came an age group to run the M50 1500m in 5.23.6 for fourth. Andy Catton ran as a M60 guest coming home sixth in 5.51.9.
In the field events Roger Honey vaulted 2m 00 for third in the M60 category. His M60 throw of 24m 02 in the Hammer placed him second.
Pete Whiting came down a couple of age groups achieving 15m 36 in the M35 Hammer.
In the Ladies 100m Michaela Davis finished fourth W35 in 16.9. Fifth place was secured in the W35 Discus with a distance of 14m 30.
Alison Sale ran the W40 sprints finishing sixth and fourth respectively in 19.1 and 91.9 for the 100m and 400m. She also ran the W40 1500m coming home fourth in 6.56.0.
Nicola Hopkinson ran all the track events in the W50 category. In the 100m, 400m and 1500m her times of 21.5, 90.4 and 6.40.7 placed her sixth, fifth and fourth respectively.
Barbara Higgins as the W60 athlete gained first place in the 100m in 18.9. This was mirrored in the Discus with the distance of 14m 92 also securing first. Barbara then came down an age group to finish fifth W50 in the Shot.
The Mens 4 x 100m of Henry, Gerald, Andy and Sam brought the baton home in 59.6 for 7th and ultimately vital points.
The Ladies 4 x 100m of Alison, Nicola, Barbara and Michaela came home fifth in 79.2.
London 5km Festival
Lee Valley Sports Centre
Wednesday 15th May
Sam Rahman followed up his gold medal in the Essex Track and Field Championship with a run at the London 5km Fest at Lee Valley last Wednesday. He ran his usual controlled race but tired a little in the last 2 laps to finish 8th in heat 2 in 17 mins 22.66 secs, his best for a couple of years.
Southern League
Sandy
Saturday 18th May
Ilford ACs Track Team Maintain their good start to the season
Ilford AC travelled to Sandy on Saturday for the second Southern league race of the season.Due to exam season Ilford were missing a number of its youngsters but the team still maintained some great performances.Special mention must go to the 4 ladies in the team, who covered a lot of different events during the day, acted as officials and amassed a large amount of points, to enable Ilford to come a great third position. These ladies were Krystle Balogun,Gemima Massamba,Nicola Hopkinson and Launa Broadley
Krystle and Gemima both won their 200 and 400m events in great times , came 4th and 3rd in the 100m respectively and both ran a leg of the Mixed 4 x 400m . This is the first time the league had held a mixed 4 x 400m and it was good to see Ilford win this first ever relay by a very long way
Launa and Nicola, Officiated the Discus and Shot put,as well as competing in those events. They both ran the 1500 and both came 3rd and Nicola even found some effort to also come third in the womens 300m
In the Mens events , Ilford started well with a second in the 400M hurdles for Sam Malekout , with 62 seconds and a second for Dan Wheeler in 70 seconds. Dan won the High Jump in 1.85, a PB and also came third in the Shot, as well as running a superb 100m in 11.70, which meant he finished 2nd. As for Sam, he came 4th in the pole vault with over 2 metres ,3rd in the Shot Putt and also 3rd in the javelin and 6th in the Discus
In the mens 200 Marion Dobrescu won the A string in 22.50 and Wayna Williams ran a great race to win the B string in 24.Wayna also came third in the 100m B string. Mario also won the Long jump in 6.26 and was part of both winning relay teams. The winning 4 x 100m relay team was Dan, Wanya, Daniel and Mario in 45.1
Jordan Akinpelu was drafted into the 400m and ran a stunning race to win in 53.50, Jordan also won the Javelin and Long Jump B string , so had a great day of performances.
One of the busiest athletes of the day was Alex Richards, who amassed a large amount of wins and points for the club. He started with winning the 800m in 1.59, won the B string 400 , beat a very classy 1500m field in 4.07 and ran a great leg in the mixed 4x 400. Philip Ellul, in his first ever scoring race for Ilford did well for 2nd in the 1500m in a time of 4.30
In the mens 3000m both Ilford athletes Mungo Prior and Tom Gardner took the lead from the start and went away from the field. Mungos aim was to break 9 mins for the first time but just fell short at 9.05. Tom , as usual ran well to win the B string. Other athletes to mention was Seb Parris , who ran a PB in B string 800 in 2.30 and Fidunu Abideku, who won B string High Jump and 3rd in the Triple jump. Finally Roger Honey came 5th in the Hammer and 3rd in the Pole Vault and Pete whiting did well in the Discus, Hammer and Triple jump.
Hackney Half Marathon
Sunday 20th May
The Hackney Half Marathon is one of London’s newest, and largest halves with over 13,000 athletes congregating on Hackney marshes for the early start.
The route skirts parks and the major roads through Hackney, which are all closed to traffic, before winding its way through the Olympic park and finishing back on Hackney Marshes.
Amongst the large group of runners was Rhoan Gabbidon from Ilford AC competing in his first ever Half Marathon and finishing in a very creditable time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 52 seconds.
Also running was Verna Grant who trains with Ilfords Wednesday night Harriers group in Valentines Park on Wednesday nights. Verna finished in a time of 2 hours 35 minutes and 51 seconds, an improvement of 20 minutes on her last Half Marathon.
Colchester Stampede 10k
Colchester Zoo
Sunday 20th May
An Emusing review
Sunday saw the second running of the Colchester 10k stampede which starts and finishes within the grounds of Colchester Zoo.
After a mass warm up where Ilford AC captain Billy Green proved he still has ‘the moves like Jaguar’ the runners were led into the Zoo grounds for the start. With so many runners in a congested space the first half a mile or so was Pandamonium but after Bearing with it the runners headed out into the Colchester countryside and hills.
Billy started off at a steady pace as the race description promised some steep hills, and they weren’t Lion.
As the race progressed Billy picked up the pace and finished in a time of 49 minutes 40 seconds, which he was pleased with, as he had set out to Seal a sub 50 minute run after a long layoff from racing
