Press Report 14th June 2022  

ESSEX 5000m Championship
​Chelmsford
Wednesday 8 June

It was the ladies team of Ilford Ac who fared best for the club at the Essex 5000m championship at the Chelmsford track.

Sameena Ahmed moved up the field as the race unfolded to come home 4th overall in 19 mins 38. secs which placed her second in the F40 category to take the silver county medal.
Joanne Reeves was racing on the track for the first time and recorded a very  creditable 21 mins 39.3 secs coming home 6th and was third in the F40 age grouping taking the bronze championship medal.
Gaye Young won her first county gold in winning the F50 age category in 23 mins 09.2 secs finishing 8th in the ladies race.

There were 3 Ilford men also in action in the meeting. Tom Gardner finished 11th overall in 15 mins 40.1 secs while in heat 3 Ryan Holeyman, still in the u20 age group, finished in 17 mins 25.6 secs for 5in the heat and Sam Rahman ran steadily for 9th with 18mins 01.0 secs

Essex Schools Champs
Chelmsford
Saturday June 11th

The Essex Schools 2022 Championships took place at a sunny Chelmsford on Saturday.
The Essex schools is always a key date in the calendar for ambitious athletes as success and fast times can lead to being picked to represent Essex in the English schools.
Ilford AC had 6 representatives competing for their borough in this year’s race , which was a great achievement in the first place.

All of the Ilford stars competed to a very high level but 2 athletes really stood out for their performances at the weekend.
Joseph Grange thought he was doing the 3000m Intermediate boys  at the championships but was informed a few days before the race that he had been entered for the 1500. In a tough race Joseph went with the leader and both pulled away from  the rest of the field  with about a lap to go and Joseph pushed the Woodford boy right through the line. Joseph was rewarded with a well earned silver medal, a massive Personal best of 4.09, a school record and a place in the English schools in his favored 3000 event.

The other outstanding athlete of the day was Oliver Blainey. Oliver was already Essex club champion and is growing with confidence as the season grows.In his Intermediate heat earlier in the morning, Oliver pushed the first 200 in the 400 Heat but then slowed down to conserve energy for the final. In the final Oliver went off quickly to open up a slight lead and powered away in the last 100 to win the Essex Schools 400 title in 50.87, just behind his personal best. 

This performance was good  enough to take Oliver, along with Joseph,  to the English schools to compete against the best athletes in the country in July

In the 800 Junior Boys Heats James Thake was in the second heat of 3 with 2  from each heat to make the final plus 2 fastest losers. In the fastest heat of the 800 James ran superbly to run 2.11 to finish third. James not only made the final as fastest loser he also achieved a personal best of 6 seconds. In the final James was in with a real chance with 300m to go but was unable to duplicate his performance in the heat and came 8th in the final but he should be proud of his performance. 

In the third heat Aaron Hick was up with the leaders to try and get the top 2 finish but was just out sprinted by another athlete to come third. Aaron’s 2.18 time meant he didn’t make the final but Aaron still performed well

In the Junior Boys 1500 Samuel Crane ran very well in a quality 1500 race.Samuel ended up with 4.51, just short of his personal best.Ronan Edwards , who medalled in the Essex club champs ran in the 800m Heats.Ronan, in the middle of exams narrowly missed out on the final and once exams are of the way will return to his best form.

BMC 5,000m Track Grand Prix
Watford
11th June 2022

Ahmed Abdulle ran the race of his life at Watford on Saturday night. Always in the front 3 Ahmed kicked on in  the final 400m to finish in first place in 14.18.64 for a new personal best over the distance.

Southend Half Marathon
Sunday June 12th

On Sunday in sweltering heat on the seafront a small group of Ilford AC members ran in a huge field of over 1545 runners in the Annual Southend Half-Marathon.

The course was a two lap seafront course 

First Home in 82 Minutes and 28 seconds for 33rd place was the ever reliable Sam Rahman.

Next Home and Invited back to race with a free entry from the organizers as a previous Winner of the event in 1998 was Terry Knightley.
Terry finished in 89 Minutes and 49 seconds for 83rd place and was robbed of the 1st MV60 prize despite being given the same time as the first MV60 finisher

Next in was MV50 Stephen Lacey in 1 Hour 52 Minutes and 58 seconds 

Following him home was MV60 Ray ‘Sparra’ Everingham in 2 Hours 20 Minutes and 03 seconds finishing together with team mate Rhoan Gabbidon in the MV50 category