Press Report 25th February 2025  

ENGLISH NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Parliament Hill Fields

The English Cross-Country Championships returned to Parliament Hill Fields, the Wembley of the sport, and was run over the traditional challenging course which was made even more tricky and muddy by some heavy rain earlier in the day.

The club had 4 athletes competing in the younger age groups. Barney Perking ran his first national championships and showed his usual strength to finish a great 277th in the u15 race finishing in 19m 35s over the 4k course.
In the under 17s race, over 6k Samuel Crane finished 147th in 26m 09s and Ryder Islam 245th in 28m 23s out of 319 participants.
Finally in the u20s race over a long distance of 10km Ronan Edwards continued his recent good form finishing in 84th place in 40m 02s in a field of just under 200 runners.

Ilford AC fielded a full team in the large field for the Senior Men’s 12km race with Seb Parris leading the squad home in 65 mins 41 secs.
Dan Holeyman was next over the line with 67 mins 07 secs and Steve Chissell recorded 74 mins 08 secs. Bradley Brown finished in 75 mins 39 secs with Diarmuid Mac Donnell home in 77 mins 40 secs. Jim Tilbrook, 80 mins 24 secs and Steve Lacey 80 mins 57 secs completed the team.
In the team competition Ilford were placed 104th out the hundreds of teams competing

Jordan Hinds was the only runner for Ilford in the senior ladies race over 8 km finishing 312nd in 40 mins 58 secs

London Winter run (10k)
Trafalgar Square

On a  cold, but bright, Sunday morning six  Ilford athletes lined up alongside 20,000 other runners for the ‘10k London Winter run’,  which is an annual event through the city of London, organized by Cancer Research UK

The 10k route which starts on Trafalgar Square and passes such iconic London Landmarks as St Paul’s Cathedral and St. Mary-le-bow church (home of the famous Bow Bells) before finishing on Whitehall alongside The Cenotaph, was lined with Polar bears, penguins and yetis – or at least people dressed up as such!

First home for Ilford was Tarik Qirem in 45m 29s. Tarik was followed by Alison Sale in 51m exactly, Billy Green in 51m 28s Carlie Qirem in 55m 34s, Mandy Ried in 59m 27s and Frieda Keane in 60m 49s 

All Ilford runners dedicated their runs to former teammate Nicola Hopkinson who lost her own battle with cancer just over a year ago, and a message was placed on the memory board in her name.

Eastbourne Half Marathon

In Absolutely brutal weather conditions and over a challenging hilly course Terry Knightley of Ilford AC bravely completed the Eastbourne Half Marathon in 1 Hour And 39 Minutes achieving 100th position out of 930 finishers and third place in male veteran over 60-65 category.

All finishers received a Medal, Protein Ball and Packet of Wet Wipes for their efforts !