Press Report 21st April 2025  

Eastern Young Athletes League (EYAL),
Thurrock
13/04/25

Ilford sent a large team of 40 Athletes to the first fixture of the year.

It was a very successful day for the throwers in the group with victories for Sophie Burrow and Dhanusshan Ponnambalam in the hammer and discus respectively. Sophie threw an impressive 34.80m in the hammer, setting a new u15 club record and moving to 6th place in the UK rankings for 2025. Sophie then returned to record new PBs in the discus and shot. Dhanusshan threw a new PB in the shot of 11.04 to win the competition, cement his place in second on the club all-time list and rank 25th in the country. He was a little under par in his javelin and discus but showed maturity to alter his technique in his final throw to get a strong distance recorded for the team.

Very impressive on debut for the club in the field events were Max Andrews, Azaria Penny-Feather, Charis Ojewunmi, Zachariah Gayle, Troy Harris and Brian Bonsu. Max came second in his strongest event, the high jump with a leap of 1.45m. He then performed well beyond expectations to finish second again in the long jump (4.91m) and fourth in 100m (13.4secs). Azaria had only picked up the discus 2 weeks beforehand but showed her natural talent to throw 17.84m for 3rd place. She also jumped 1.35m in the high jump and ran the 300m. Charis has great potential in the u15 throws, her shot put of 8.87 for 2nd place and javelin throw of 22.07 for fourth both place her 50th in the UK rankings for the year. Troy also showed great potential in the Javelin with a debut throw of 30.61 for 4th place. Zachariah has also recently joined the u13 ranks, His performance of the day was a very good long jump of 3.41m and strong sprinting in the 100m and 200m. Finally Brian had another good debut with a Long jump of 5.22m, triple jump of 10.19m and a lactic inducing 400m just under 60 seconds.

We had 8 further club debutants on the day. In the u13 boys Cohen Hylton, Antoni Sroka, Ewan McKinstry and Danilo Reina competed over multiple events. Danilo again epitomised the club spirit by trying the javelin and high jump for the first time and performing well in both. Oluwadarasini Daramola is probably the most improved athlete since starting training, she ran a brilliant 100m of 13.9secs for the u15 girls and also tried the 200m and Javelin. In the u17s we had three further debutants, Fabio Reina ran under 5 minutes in the 1500m for the first time and threw the discus, Robert Stanciu competed in the long jump and 1500m and Osawhese Suma showed good promise with 13.6 in the 100m.

For our more experienced athletes there were girls PBs for Drissialemoy Majen Akande (17.8secs in the 100m), Sofia Crane (19.36m in the hammer, 8.12m in the discus), Gloria Ananwa (13.7 secs in the 100m) Marissa Osas-Bavis (1.30m in the high jump) and Victoria Ananwa (29.0secs in the 200m) For the boys Hasim Khan ran a brilliant 2.41 in the 800m and 34.4 secs in the 200m for 2 PBS in a day. Luke Thake broke 2.20 for the 800m for the first time. Olatoye Oguntoye showed the benefit of a more serious training gaining PBs in both sprints of 13.0 in the 100m and 26.45 in the 200m. Barney Perkins, Khalif Ali were just outside their bests in the middle distance but had good season’s debuts and Stephen Amoli ran PBs in the 300m and 800m, whilst Elias Furreedan ran a PB in the 300m also. Finally Jayden Kyle Mcdermott ran a PB in the 400m in 60.8secs.

Andre Mullings Roache (100m and Long jump), Hawaa Patel (800m and High jump), Iris Wan (1500m), Kenina Nkrumah (100m and Javelin) and Mya Ward (300m) all performed well in track and field season debuts.

Finally the club is building a very strong group of sprinters in the U17 boys. Jaydan Roberts- Edwards, Damien Kwarteng-Amaniampong, Leron Adjei, Kelson Avebaun, Donnell Lucky-Oligie all broke 12 seconds in 100m. Jaydan and Damien ran PBs of 11.5 and 11.6 and Kelson broke 12 seconds for the first time. Joshua Babalola was just outside this time but is pushing his team mates hard. All the boys also ran in the 200m.

The u17s boys joined their female team mates in the 2 4x100m relays to finish the day off with 2rd and 3rd place in the a and b mixed relays.

An all-round very promising day for the club’s youngsters!

Lee Valley Open Meeting

Ilford Athletes continued to show good early season form at Lee Valley in another open meeting on Easter Monday. 

Rachael Obeng, ran in the first round of the 100m, clocking 13.76, she came back an hour later for round two and won  her heat in an impressive 13.22. Wanya Williams also ran the 100, and clocked a time of 13.82, just outside his seasons best. 

James Houghton ran the 800m, and unfortunately it was a slow early pace, which meant really fast times were out the window, but despite getting cramp in his calf at 600m, James hung in to finish 4th in 2.19.4, which was an outdoor pb. 

James Thake ran the 600m  to check his 800m fitness, James led the whole way and finished in a time of 1.28, which he was a bit disappointed with. 

Most impressive performance came from Ellie Wright, who was 5th in a very good quality 200m. Ellie broke 25 seconds for the first time clocking 24.88, which is the 6th fastest ever by an Ilford Lady.