Ilford AC Press Report 22nd June 2021
TRACK
Southern league
Saturday 20th June
Ilford AC returned to competing in the Southern league for the first time for 2 years at the weekend and all our athletes performed admirably.
Even though Ilford had a small team compared to other clubs, there were many outstanding performances and the club finished a very promising 4th
Our women sprinters started the day well with Aleena Lawrence and Efe Adjarifo running 13.4 and 13.5 respectively in the 100m.
In the Women’s 200m Krsytle Balogun, who always runs well, ran a very good 26.61 and it’s great to see Ellie Wright back on the track, not only coming second but running a pb of 26.7.
In the 400 and 800m both Gemima Eshimu Massamba and Jordan Hinds did this very tough combination. Gemima ran 61.23 and also 2m.27 for the 800. Jordan came 3rd in the 400 in 64.9 and was strong in the 800 to come through in a season’s best of 2m.24.
Sameena Ahmed ran her first ever race on the track for Ilford on Sunday in the 3000m and was absolutely outstanding in a superb time of 11m.25, coming second. Hopefully this is only the start of her track career
In the Men’s side , starting with the sprints, Adulhakin Mohamed ran a very fast 11.25 in the 100m for third, but Elijah Mayindu looked super quick and won convincingly in 11.04.
In the 200m Fidunu Abidekun, who was looking for a fast time to get into the English schools,looked so strong and quick and powered home first with 22.18. Abdulhakin came third with 23.43.
Fidunu also found time to come second with a very impressive jump of 1.90 in the high jump
These 3 athletes and u17 athlete Oliver Blainey came together for the 4 x 100 to storm home in 43.74, beating some very fast teams and only a second away from the club record. With a bit of baton training this record could be beaten
Moving onto the 400 and middle distance, Ilford were super dominant. Oliver ran his first ever 400 to come second in 54.56, with much more to come and new athlete to Ilford Dylan Harrod, ran outstandingly for a pb of 55.1 and came first in the B string. In the 800 Dylan ran a pb of 2m.02 to come second and Alex Richards just got beat on the line with a time of 1m.58
In the 1500 Paul Grange and his son Jak Wright bossed the race from the very start . Paul got away in the last lap to run an outstanding 3m.58 and Jak just missed out on his PB with a 4.04. Once again so much more to come from these 2
In the 5000 Veteran Tom Gardner and youngster Bradley Deacon pushed away in the 5000. The race was very close for the first 3000 but Tom showed his experience to run a very decent time of 15.39 and first and even though Brad struggled in the last few laps he still did a pb of 16.23. John Crawley also ran 18.47 in the 5000.
Rhys Edwards also making his debut for Ilford in the southern league once again showed his versatility to run a pb in the 2000 in 6.41 and finished 2nd
Fabrizio Stefanoni competed in the 400m at ran well for 61.2
Ilford are also lucky to have a number of field athletes who between them are able to compete in every one of the field events and without these guys we would not get the amount of points we get in every match
Sam Malekout , who most years earns the most points in the league did the Long jump, Triple jump, Pole vault,Discus,Javelin and Shot Putt and once again competed to a very high standard. His 39 metres javelin was probably his best performance.
Also U20 athlete George Marshall Child, competing in events he had never done before deserves a massive congratulations for competing so well. George did the Long jump, Triple jump, discus, Javelin and High Jump. His best performance was the High jump of 1.45 with much more to come in future fixtures. Also debuting in Shot putt and Hammer was u20 Jeevakan Sivayogan .
Veterans Roger Honey and Peter Whiting also did the Hammer and Pole vault respectively to enable us to compete in all the field events
Last race of the day was the 4 x400. Even though the Ilford team was not made up of a 400 specialist, the team powered home to victory in an excellent time of 3.31. Once again congratulations to Dylan,Alex, Jak and Paul for outstanding runs
The performances and team togetherness was great to see and every Ilford athlete competing got cheered home every time. Well done Ilford
Woodford Open Meeting
A number of Ilford youngsters turned up at Woodford last week and the majority continued to achieve PBs
Oliver Blainey, Jacob Emeagi and Lucas Emeagi were all placed in the same 200m . All 3 achieved PBs with Oliver winning in 24.4. Jacob ran 25.9 and his younger brother Lucas 26.4. Outstanding runs from these 3 youngsters
In the 800m Ronan Edwards ran a pb of 2.18 and Aaron Hick broke 2.30 for the first time in a new pb of 2.26.Samuel Yusuf Crane also ran well for 2.36
Once again showing his versatility was Rhys Edwards running 100 in 12.5 and 200 in 25.3
Last up was veteran Fabrizio Stefanoni who ran well for 2.16
ROAD
Victoria Park 10k
Sunday 20th June
Terry Knightley of Ilford AC travelled into the heart of London’s East End on Sunday for the Victoria Park 10K Road Race.
The course consisted of a socially distanced start and 3 laps of the park on traffic free Roads/Paths.
Unfortunately, the race did not go as planned, as Terry started the race with a blinding headache and feeling extremely weak on the aforementioned start line.
Nevertheless he decided to tough it out and race as best he could and finish the race albeit slower than anticipated in.
Final results showed he came 31st overall out of 91 athletes in 41m 40s and was 2nd Male Veteran Over 60.
All finishers received a quality commemorative medal – Terry went home to bed to recover !
