Press Report 27th May 2025
Lee Valley
Ilford men started their defense of the Vets League with a win on Monday at Lee Valley.
Steve Crane and Steve Uttley won the M35 and M50 walk over 2000m in 11.35.45 and 11.50.13 respectively.
Sam Malekout finished third (12.81) in the M35 100m, fourth (8m 45) in the M35 shot and won the M35 400m (57.90).
Chris Scott in his first year as M50 finished third (13.4) in the 100m, second in the shot (8m 41) and won the 400m (60.01).
James Lambden in the M60 age group finished fourth (15.2) over 100m and came down to the M40 group to finish fourth (6.17.86) over 1500m.
David Butler had a few events in the evening as the M70 athlete finishing third (19.2) over 100m, fourth (14m 68) in the hammer and winning the 1500m (5.42.46).
Malcolm Muir came down to the M40 age group to finish fifth (66.6) over 400m. In the same age group he finished third (4.53.79) over 1500m.Berekhet Berekhy won the M50 1500m (4.46.51). Steve Chissell as the M60 athlete over the same distance finished fourth (5.39.50).
Wesley Clarke came down age groups to finish second (34m 59) in the hammer. Peter Whiting finished fifth (19m 97) in the M60 hammer.
The relay team of Sam, Berekhet, Chris and James finished third in the 4 x 100m in 55.32.
The team score of 146 was comfortably ahead of Barnet and District who scored 117.
The team move onto match two on 9 June at Stevenage.
DAGENHAM ELVIS
Eastbrook End Country Park
Wednesday 21 May
The first round of the 2025 Elvis series was run over a course of around 5 miles over 3 laps of the trials in the Eastbrook End Country Park in Dagenham. Ilford AC fielded a squad of 21 runners and were led home by an in-form Steve Philcox in 9th place in 29 mins 17 secs with Josh Adler 2 places back with 29 mins 35 secs. Tomas Krukauskas finished just inside the 30 minute barrier in 13th with 29 mins 59 secs. Dave Thomas was the first in the m60 category as he finished 28th in 32 mins 53 secs. Bradley Brown came home 34th recording 33 mins 27 secs and Steve Chissell closed out the scoring 6 placing 38th in 34 mins 08 secs. In the match the Ilford Men finished in 3rd spot in division 1.
Gemma Ellender led the Ilford ladies team in 6th in their event in 37 mins 18 secs with Natalie Crisp 12th in 39 mins 34 secs and Alison sale 14th in 40 mins 08 secs One place and one second behind was Jenni Sheehan, with Dani Thomas returning from injury to record 4 mins 24 secs in 17th. Dianne Crisp closed the scoring team in 48th with 43m 48 secs. In the series match the Ilford team placed 4th in the top division.
Also in action for Ilford were:
Men – Mike Perkins (57 36.08) Tarik Qirem (66 37.20) Andy Catton (110 40.45) Tony Young (117 41.12) Pathrose Louis (164 44.11) Ray ‘Sparra’ Etheringham (206 48.14)
Ladies – Mandy Reid (175 45.30) Bev Thomas (218 5.11) Julia Galea (229 52.17)
Loughton “ Unto the fields competition “
Ilford had a team of 13 youngsters to this competition including U11/U13/U15 athletes competing over the 1.5km and 5 km distances
The U11 Boys race saw ever improving Danilo Reina finishing in 7.21m sealing 3rd in his age group
Next U11boy to complete the 1.5km distance was Joshua Denning in 14th place clocking 8.23m and closing the U11- team was younger brother James Denning in 21st place in a time of 10.05m
U11 girls race saw debutant Olivia Spink produce a great run to claim second place in her category with a really determined run of 7.38m
Younger sister Rose Spink closed the team with a 5th place finish clocking 8.47m completing a great debut.
U13 boys race saw Caleb Singleton run a strong race to claim 2nd place in his age group
despite feeling under the weather recording 7.12m
Teammate Elias Furreedan claimed 6th place in 7.33m after recovering from a fall.
The U13 girls race saw newcomer Amelia Clive run a fantastic race to claim victory in a really good time of 7.18m. A brilliant debut for an athlete with a really promising future
Amelia was followed home by teammate Itis Wan who ran yet another solid race to claim 3rd spot in 8.03m . Fast finishing debutant Sophie Lawes claimed 4th position in a time of 8.08m closely followed by ever reliable teammate Alicia Adams in 5th place recording 8.13m .
A great team effort with some great individual performances by these young athletes point to a very bright future for Ilford AC endurance group
Ilford also had 2 Seniors competing in the 40+ vets race on the night. Joel Denning finished in 11th place in a time of 33:28 over the 8km distance, with Jim Tilbrook finishing in 25th place in 38:44
Eastern Young Athletes League (EYAL) 18/05/25 Watford
The youngsters had another tremendous day in the second fixture of the season with a mixture of victories, personal bests and promising debuts.
The team had 5 victories in scoring events from Dhanusshan Ponnambalam, Daniel Okereke, Andre Mullings-Roache, Sophie Burrow and Jaydan Roberts Edwards. Jaydan is improving at every event, here he won both the 100m and 200m in personal best times of 11.3 and 23.0. We are sure these times will see further improvement as the season develops. Dhanusshan also continues to improve at every competition. The recently crowned Essex champion won the shot put in a massive PB of 11.66 and then followed this up with big bests in the discus (28.89m) and Javelin (24.10m). Sophie continued her run of form winning the u15 girls hammer with a throw 34.71 whilst also scoring in the discus and shot. Daniel won a tightly contested u13 100m and then came 2nd in 200m and 3rd in the long jump, both in outdoor PBs. Finally Andre had a real breakthrough day with victory in the b string u13 long jump and PBs in the high jump (1.35m) and 75m hurdles (15.3).
Five athletes made their competitive debuts at Watford namely Nassim Rebhi, Evelyn Soares, Yeva Zholon, Ava Skipp and A’ Ishah Ahmed. James Houghton also made his EYAL debut. James showed his versatility with 4th place in the 800m, a good long jump and an excellent PB of 7.49m in the shot. Nassim took on arguably the hardest event in the 400m and broke 60 seconds in his first attempt with an excellent time 57.7secs. He recovered to compete in the 100m and had an excellent debut long jump distance of 4.98m. Yeva also had a stunning debut jumping 4.19m in the u15 girls long jump, running 14.4 in the 100m and finishing 3rd in a fast 300m. Evelyn showed promise for the future over multiple events her highlight being 2nd place in the javelin b string with a throw of 13.09 and a good long jump of 3.93m. Ava Skipp shows great potential for the future running good initial marks in the 100 and 200m. Finally A’ishah Ahmed showed her training has been going well with a long jump of 2.66m in the u13 girls.
There were also multiple PBs on the day. Sofia Crane threw over 20m in the hammer for the first time, her mark being 21.92m. Max Andrews had another breakthrough day with a brilliant 1.65m high jump to gain second place. He also ran the 100m and was 3rd in the long jump. His high jump puts him joint 4th on the clubs all-time list and 31st in country this year. Oluwadarasini Daramola set an excellent new best in the 200m of 29.4 and also ran the 100m and threw the Javelin. Olatoye Oguntoye showed the benefit of more serious training with a PB of 26.4s in the 200m and a good 100m. Stephen Amoli and Elias Furreedan both ran new PBs in the 300m and then returned to run in u15 boys 800m. There were also big bests for Barney Perkins and Luke Thake in the middle distance. Both moved up a group over the winter and have adapted well to the harder sessions. This resulted in an excellent 1500m best for Barney of 4.53, 14 seconds off his previous best perhaps showing the benefit of running without a watch. Luke ran a new PB of 2.19 in the 800 and showed his willingness to gain points for the team also throwing the discus and javelin. Another athlete willing to try new events was Fabio Reina, he was slightly under his best in his favoured distance of 1500m but threw a new best of 12.43m in the discus. His brother Danilo ran the 1500m and threw an excellent best of 15.41m in the javelin.
Other athletes competing on the day in the U17 age group were, Kelson Avebaun, Donnell Lucky-Oligie, Osawhese Suma, Jasmine Shaer and Nora Nzurike. The standout performances in this group being Donnell first hurdles, Matthew first 400m (57.2) and Nora return in the shot with 5th place in 7.17m.
In the u15 group Gloria Ananwa, Charis Ojawunmi, Iris Wan and Hawaa Patel all competed well with Iris and Hawaa both improving from the last meeting and Gloria again breaking 50 seconds in the 300m
In the u13 group Elijah Muirhead had his first outing of the season in the sprints and jumps and formed part of the relay team that came sixth. We also had teams in the u15 girls and u17 men. The u17 men came second beating many larger teams with a time 46.5 secs (4x100m).