Press Report 21st October 2019
South of England Cross Country relays
Wormwood Scrubs
Saturday 19th October 2019
Ilford U17’s gained a well deserved bronze medal at the South of England Cross Country Relays, at Wormwood scrubs last weekend.
Bradley Deacon ran the first Leg and got off to a good start, in amongst lots of early pushing.
Jak Wright was on the second leg and he had plenty of runners in front of him to work his way through, after a steady start, he started moving past other runners on the second half of the course, eventually passing 7 athletes to bring the team home in 9th place. Jaks time of 10.53 was the third fastest on the second leg.
Aaron Samuel was left with the last leg, and despite having to borrow Bradleys spikes, he set off in determined fashion and was soon closing down on the runners ahead, by half way he was up to 6th place, and coming out of the forest section he had moved up to 3rd, and in doing so ran the fastest time on leg three and the second fastest of the day to ensure the bronze medal.
A magnificent achievement and well deserved.
Yorkshire Marathon
York
Sunday 20th October 2019
Over 4,000 runners took to the streets of York on Sunday for the Yorkshire marathon, including one runner from Ilford AC ‘Paul Holloway’.
On an overcast day ideal for running, Paul ran a steady race to finish 122nd and 6th in his age category in a time of 2 hours, 52 mins 9 secs
Oakland Trail 35k
California
Saturday 19th October 2019
Ilford AC member John Crawley had a work trip to California that finished on Friday, with a return flight home Saturday evening.
Whereas most people would have spent Saturday doing a bit of sightseeing John decided it would be a good idea to look up local races – and managed to find a 35k trail race in Oakland to enter!
Starting at the top of a big hill by an observatory in the middle of a Redwood forest, the race had an elevation gain of 4550ft with the worst of the hills arriving, rather cruelly, in the last 4 miles. John also described the course as having many obstacles such as tree roots and rocks to contend with, so most of the run was spent looking down at his feet rather than enjoying the surroundings…well as much as you can ‘enjoy’ surroundings when running a 23 mile hilly trail race anyway!.
John finished with a fantastic time of 4 hours, 5 mins 28 secs, which placed him 22nd on the day, and first English runner home.
Amazingly the winner, Matt Daniels from Colorado finished in a course record of 2 hours 37 mins…34 minutes before the second placed runner.
Great South Run – 10 miles
Southsea
Sunday 20th October 2019
Now in its 30th year, the 10-mile race attracts more than 20,000 runners.
One of these was Ilford stalwart Malcolm Muir who ran his normal gutsy race to finish in a time of 59 minutes and 26 seconds which placed him 4th in his age category on the day.
Havering XC Trials
Stubbers
Thursday 17th October 2019
It was a good day for Ilford’s young runners today in the Havering Schools Cross Country trials
Jak Wright year 12, Ryan Holeyman year 10, Joseph Grange year 8 and Aaron Hick year 7 all representing their schools, qualified in their age group races and will now go on to represent Havering at the London Youth Games in November and also the Essex Schools Champs in January.
Orion 7.5m Cross Country race
Epping Forest
Sunday 20th October
3 Ilford runners ran the challenging muddy hills of Epping Forest on Sunday, Gary coombs and father and son team Danny and Ryan Holeyman.
Leading the way, continuing his fine form of late, was Gary Coombes in a time of 52 mins for 8th place. An interesting battle ensued behind with Danny and Ryan competing for bragging rights in the Holeyman household. With both runners posting similar times over runs on the flat this season it was young Ryan, fresh from his successful Havering trails who proved the victor posting a time of 56 mins 39 secs for 22nd place 2 places and just 7 seconds ahead of his dad.
