Junior Press Report 3rd May 2022
Eastern Young Athletes League
Thurrock
1st May 2022
At the weekend Ilford Ac’s Youngsters returned to League competition in the Eastern Young athletes league. Ilford have joined up with Orion to compete in the league and this has enabled Ilfords Youngsters to compete in a very competitive environment
Ilford had the established youngsters that have competed for the last few years and It was great to see the influx of a number of new youngsters, who were competing in the league for the very first time
The 7 established youngsters all broke their personal bests or won their race , which hopefully means they will all have a successful track season .
One of the best performers of the day was James Thake, who did the maximum 4 events and was terrific in all events. His first event was the U15s 800. James ran a sensible race and tucked in behind the leaders until the 600 mark and then powered past the leaders to win in an impressive 2.18. He returned back for the 300 where he just got beat but once again showed off his speed in a pb of 41.5. James also came third in the High Jump in 1.45M(PB) and ran the relay
Aaron Hick did 3 events on the day. He was in the same race as James in the 800 and came third in the B string in 2.25. He then ran the 300m for third but ran a great time of 44.4 for a big PB and then broke his javelin pb to throw 17.53
Staying with the U15s Samuel Crane and Ryder Islam competed in the 1500m. Both athletes were outstanding and ran Personal bests. Samuel broke the 5 min barrier for the first time with 4.59 and Ryder ran superb for 5.21. Both have lots more to give to get these times down over the next few months
Moving onto the U17s and Ilford had 3 Outstanding athletes competing
First on the track was Ronan Edwards who was doing the 800 and 400 events. In the 800 Ronan stayed with the leaders the whole race and came a superb 3rd in a massive personal best of 2.05. He returned an hour later to run a pb in the 400 of 56.7
Joseph Grange competed in the U17s 1500m and was outstanding as usual. Joseph has had a great Cross country season and comes into the track season with much confidence. He was racing against the Chelmsford lad who beat Joseph on a number of occasions on the track last summer but Joseph took the race from the very start and went away from the field over the last 800m to power home in a big PB of 4.17
Last but not least Oliver Blainey was competing in the u17s 400 and 200 . Oliver had already this season broken his pb in both events and is getting stronger with every race. In the 400m Oliver powered round the first bend and maintained his form for the rest of the race to come home 1st in a near PB of 51.8 and in the 200m was able to hold off all his rivals in a very quick 23.03
Over the past year Ilford AC have been running a foundation group of young people new to running and athletics and this Saturday we used the opportunity of the ‘Eastern Young Athletes’ league to give 10 youngsters their athletics debut.
Many competed in multiple events and all did the club and themselves proud.
With this being their first time in competition it was difficult to know whether the youngsters would compete in A or B teams or run in non scoring races, which were held to allow everyone who wanted to compete a chance to do so.
Below are our first time athletes results :-
U13G
Laila Charles 100m 15.7 4th (A) / 200m 36.1 6th (A) / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay
Ruby Moffat 100m 16.8 5th (B) / 200m 36.8 non scorer / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay
Katie Burke 100m 19.6 non scorer / 200m 41.9 5th (B)
U15G
Stacey Amaniampong 100m 14.7 non scorer / 200m 32.2 non scorer / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay / Long jump 2.03m 4th (B)
Reianne Dowridge 100m 14.5 non scorer / 200m 31.5 non scorer / 200m 31.5 non scorer
Both girls would have finished 4th and 5th in main races
Anika Sharma 100m 16.1 non scorer / 300m 54.8 non scorer / Long jump 2.98m non scorer .
U13B
Luke Thake 100m 16.00 4th (B) / 200m 34.5 non scorer / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay
Tyran Pabla 100m 16.6 non scorer / 200m 34.9 4th (B) / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay
U15B
Jayden McDermott 100m 13.8 4th (B) / 200m 29.7 non scoring / 100m leg of 4 x 100m relay / Shot put 4.52 5th
U17M
Mohamed Zergouat 100m 12.8 6th (A) / 200m 27.7 3rd (B) and relay
