Press Report 30th January 2024

Jan 302024

SOUTH OF ENGLAND CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Beckenham Place Park
Saturday 28 January

Ilford AC sent a small team to this yearly championship again held at Beckenham Place Park in South London over a course which featured grassland, trail, mud and hills.

The under 15 boys were represented by Sam Horsley and Ryder Islam. This was Sam’s first area championship.
He started strongly in the front pack and held his position well finishing in a fantastic 7th place. He now looks forward to upcoming competitions where he will compete for the county.
Ryder had a strong race taking 5 positions in the last 100m to finish in 95th place, his first top 100 placing in area champs.

The club had one competitor in the U17 men’s 6k. Samuel Crane started strongly but struggled in the last 2 kilometres to finish in 114th place.

Jordan Hinds was next up in her first Southern Championships as a senior woman. She went off hard and kept going well to finish in a respectable 121st place in 32 mins 56 secs over the 8k course.

Finally we had 5 stalwarts in the 15 kilometre men’s race.
The course was changed this year for the men’s race and included a long hill towards the back of the park which the men had to negotiate twice.
Malcolm Muir led home the Ilford squad with his usual gritty performance in 289th spot in a large field in 55 mins 18 secs for the race. Next over the line was Seb Parris in 420th in 59 mins 41 secs and following on was Danny Holeyman with 63 mins 12 secs for 507th.

Steve Chissel unfortunately missed the start but finished the course strongly in just under 70 minutes in 580th place. Jim Tilbrook had a really strong run on the longest cross country championship in the calendar placing 717th in just over 85 minutes.

ESSEX SCHOOLS CHAMPS
Benfleet

In the Essex schools champs held at Benfleet last weekend Ilford AC had 7 runners , representing their respective Borough

In the Intermediate race Ilford had 6 athletes across 4 separate boroughs

Best performance of the day was Sam Horsley. Sam still has a year left in the age group but still took the lead from the very start of the race. He continued to push on for the duration of the race and came a brilliant 7th

Essex schools picked the first 6 positions to represent Essex in the prestigious English schools. However Sam has another opportunity to win a spot in the team as a further 2 spots are given in a subsequent race in the next week or so.

Good performances also from Aaron Hick in 25th ,Samuel crane in 33rd and Ryder Islam in 38th

Aron Berhe and James Thake both finished strong to be in the top 45 athletes

In the senior boys race Ronan Edwards ran very well to come a very creditable 11th position

INDOOR