Press Report 1st August 2023
Southern Counties Veterans Athletics Club (SCVAC)
A huge turnout resulted in the Mens Vets finishing first on the evening and now top the league by 1 point going into the last match.
The track events started with the 200m hurdles where Chris Scott crossed the line in first.
The 100m for all age groups closely followed
Sam Malekout placed 3rd V35. Akwasi Nkrumah was also 3rd in V40. Michael Osunsami was 6th in V50. Dave Butler 7th in V60 and Gerald Daniel 3rd in V70.
The 2000m walk was for V35 and V50 age groups.
Steve Crane was 1st V35 and Steve Uttley 2nd V50. The sole female representative on the evening was Lesley Morris who won the V35 walk. Non-scoring Stuart Bennett was 5th overall.
The 400m was another all age group event.
Akwasi won V35. Chris was 2nd V40. Fabrizio Stefanoni 3rd V50. The was a slight hiccup in the V60 meaning no Ilford athlete ran. Gerald placed 2nd in V70.
8 Ilford vests took to the starting line for the 1500m. Scoring age groups were V35, V40 and V50.
Sam Rahman was the 2nd V35 athlete to finish facing a determined sprint down the final straight from Malcolm Muir who was also 2nd V40. Fabrizio was also 2nd as the V50 athlete.
In the race overall Richard Woolterton was 11th just ahead of 12th placed Danny Holeyman. Dave Butler was 20th. Joel Denning on debut was 23rd and Steve Chissell 24th.
In the field events Akwasi won the V35 triple jump and Pete Whiting 4th in V50.
Sam was 3rd in V35 discus and Pete also 3rd in V60. Gerald placed 4th in V70.
Javelin was for V50 athletes where Pete finished 4th.
The men’s medley relay team (200m, 200m, 400m &800m) of Fabrizio, Sam, Chris and Akwasi put in a great effort to come home 1st.
There were enough athletes to also enter a non-scoring team. The team of Richard, Danny, Malcolm and Sam competed in another race and also came home 1st. By time they would have finished 6th overall.
HAROLD WOOD 5Km
Wednesday 26th July
The latest round of the summer Elvis league matches took place on a cool, wet Wednesday evening on paths and trials on a hilly course around and Harold Wood Country Park.
Ilford were below full strength due to injuries and non-availability. but the team still posted good performances on the difficult route.
Malcolm Muir was in good form leading the team home in 6th spot in 18 mins 25 secs with Steve Philcox backing him up well in 10th with 19 mins exactly and taking the award for 1st M50. Josh Adler, who is improving week by week since joining the club, finished an excellent 19th in 19 mins 53 secs and Seb Parris placed 20th, just 3 seconds behind.
Dan Holeyman was 29th in 20 mins 27 secs, followed by Neil Crisp in 20 mins 49 secs for 34th which once again placed him first in the M60 category award.
One place behind came Joel Denning with a good run out with 20 mins 50 secs.
In this match the team placed 3rd and remain in 3rd position in the league.
First home for the Ilford ladies was Gemma Ellender in 67th and 5th in the female section with 22 mins 35 secs. Next over the line was Joanne Reeves in 96th and 19th female with 23 mins 44 secs.
Alison Sale recorded 24mins 02 secs for 100th place and 21st female, with Carlie Qirem one place back in 24 mins 15 secs.
Completing the Ilford scoring team were Mandy Reid in 27 mins 59 secs for 177th and 50th female and Sharon Honey placing 186th and 57th in a time of 28 mins 40 secs.
In this match the team finished 4th and are joint second overall two points behind East London
Also running for Ilford, and putting in fine performances in the rain and on the hills were: Dave Thomas (54 21.40) Nick West (70 22.40) Adam Coals (77 23.02) Steve Chissell (82 23.14) Bradley Brown (83 23.16) Dennis Briggs (85 23.21) Steve Lacey (103 24.20) Tony Young (140 26.13) Edward Skinner (170 27.45) Rachel Halpin (188 28.46) Julia Galea ( 219 31.52) Ray Everingham (222 32:!2)
Southern Counties Vets 10k
Last week saw the 14th staging of the Romney Marsh 10K, which also incorporated the Southern Counties Veterans championships.
After a few showers, Sunday dawned with warm sunshine and a few spots of rain but it was breezy on the exposed sections across the former smugglers paradise that is the sparsely populated 100 square miles of wetland area that comprises The Marsh.
Ilford AC’s Andy Catton was perhaps the most illustrious medal winner on the day, running 46:57 for M70 gold.
Andy has won at least 25 Essex senior titles and is a triple European Masters 10K champion.
TRACK RACES
Watford Open Graded Meeting 26/07/23
Five Ilford AC athletes travelled to Watford on Wednesday night for the opportunity of some fast times
Highlight of the event for the club was a new U15 3000m club record by Sam Horsley. Sam has been training with the club for around six months. He started at a good standard but has progressed rapidly. Even more remarkably this was his first track 3000m. He ran sensibly showing his customary strong finish to come 6th in his race in 9:22.18. This beat the previous record by 5 seconds and puts him above current coaches Gary Floate and Wayne Hick. From a national perspective the performance placed him 14th in the country and he now looks forward to the southern area championships in a couple of weeks.
Sam’s training partners Samuel Crane and Ryder Islam were also on show and achieved Personal Bests. Crane clocked 9:44.33 to move to 13th on the all-time U17 list for the club and Islam ran a remarkable 47s second best of 10:23.10. Islam moved to 12th on the U15 list with this performance.
Also in action in the 1500m were Fabrizio Stefanoni who ran 4:41.64 for his second fastest time of the year and Alex Richards in 4:08.18.
Be Fit Open Meeting 29/07/2023
Two of the middle distance squad travelled to Lee Valley for the open meeting with the opportunity to improve their 800m best.
Aaron Hick has run mainly 1500m this year but returned to 800m and ran a PB of 2:13.69 to win his race. It was change from his recent races as the first 400m was a slow 67 seconds. Hick then closed quicker and was pleased with his performance. Just behind him was Samuel Crane in 2:15.65 his second quickest time of the year.