Press Report 19th January 2020  

Ilford AC athletes were out in action on Saturday at the Essex Schools XC Championships. In this race, the top 8 finishers are selected to run for Essex in the English Schools XC championship – with two discretionary places, and the top 20 finishers are selected to run in the South Eastern Inter-counties race.

First up was Joseph Grange representing Havering schools as a junior boy in his first ever Essex Schools race. After a conservative start, Joseph picked up many places to come an incredible 14th and qualify for South-easten Inter-counties. This is a great achievement as one of the youngest boys in the race.

Ryan Holeyman also ran in the Essex Schools for the first time, representing Havering. Ryan ran in the inter boy’s race. He was a bottom year runner and, unfortunately, didn’t run as well as he wanted. Ryan still managed to pick up 12 places on his second lap to come a respectable 33rd place.

In the final race of the day, Ilford AC had 4 athletes entered all running for different districts.

Aaron Samuel, for Mid-Essex, ran a good race and tucked in nicely early on behind Thurrock Harrier’s Leon Wheeler. The sprint finish was a close call but unfortunately Aaron lost his first place position in the last 20 metres of the race. Overall he performed well and is happy with a second place, but is looking to come back harder in the English Schools Championships.

Mungo Prior, for Redbridge, also qualified for the English Schools with an amazing 4th place. Mungo left the chasing group with about 2 kilometres to go, and extended his lead over the remainder of the race. This was Mungo’s final Essex schools race, and he is pleased with his result.

Jak Wright, representing Havering, bagged a discretionary place for the English Schools coming through in 8th place. His place in the Essex team depends on his performance at the South-easten Intercounties race. Jak is pleased with his performance, being a bottom year runner in this age group.

Bradley Deacon was Ilfords 4th finisher inside the top 10, coming in 10th place for Barking and Dagenham. Bradley started the race tucked into the chasing pack but lost contact with them on the second lap. However, he managed to pull back a couple runners before losing a position to a sprint finish duel.