Ilford AC Press Report. 9th October 2017
Essex Cross Country Relays.
Stubbers, Upminster
7th October
In the Seniors race Ilford AC put out 5 teams, 2 women and 3 men.
The Womens ‘A’ team, consisting of Breege Nordin, Carlie Qirem and Diane Crisp came in 21st place and the ‘B’ team consisting of Frieda Keane, Julia Galea and Pam Jones came in 40th place.
The Mens ‘A’ team consisting of Moad Zahri, Tom Gardner, Alex Richards and Ahmed Abdulle gave the best performance of the day for the Ilford Seniors, just missing out on a medal place by 12 seconds to finish in 4th place.
The ‘B’ team od Steve Philcox, Neil Crisp, Dennis Briggs and Seb Parris came in 18th place, whilst the ‘C’ team of Steve Cheal, Andy Catton, Bill Green and Alaga Satha finished in 45th place.
Unfortunately a lot of times went unrecorded due to the very large field in the seniors race, but all finishing positions are correct.
Chester Marathon
Sunday 8 October
The 8th Chester Marathon was staged on Sunday from the town’s racecourse and after a short tour of the historic town before heading out into the Cheshire and North Wales countryside before returning to the racecourse for the finish alongside the River Dee. Ilford were represented by 2 runners in this event.
Sam Rahman came home in a creditable time of 3 hours 01 mins 44 secs for 162nd place out of the 2644 finishers. He was delayed in starting his training earlier in the year due to a back injury which led to him slowing in the second half after reaching 20km in 1 hr 19 minutes. The race also doubled as the British Masters Championship and in his first appearance in the masters categories he finished 10th in the M35 category.
Pramila Monro made her marathon debut breaking her target of 5 hours with 4 hrs 58 minutes 38 secs for 222th and 605th female. Despite her inexperience at the event she ran a steady race with a clocking of 2 hrs 11 minutes for the first 20km and slowing her pace only slightly in the second half.
Royal Parks Half Marathon
Sunday 8 October
The Royal Parks race a spectacular Half Marathon in central London – the first and only one of its kind. The stunning 13.1 mile route takes in the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens.
Nicola Hopkinson put in an excellent performance to record 1hr 43m, her best time for 6 years, to finish 2201 overall, 319th female and 2nd in the F55 grouping.
The Big Blue Run
Harrow Lodge Park
8th October
The Big Blue Run is a local charity run, now in its 4th year, in aid of Havering MIND.
The race took part on an unseasonably warm October morning on the slightly undulating Harrow Lodge park course that is used for the weekly parkrun event.
Although billed as a 5k (3.1 miles) run, the course was actually around 2.7 miles so the times should be put in to a little perspective.
Ilford AC had 4 athletes on show for the race with Dennis Briggs leading the quartet home, finishing in 2nd position on the day with a fantastic time of 18:25. This was Dennis’ 2nd race of the weekend after competing in the Essex Relays the day previously.
Also competing in his second race in 2 days was Bill Green who came home in 19th position in 20:35 followed closely by Tony Young in 23rd place with a time of 20:55.
Nichola Fairburn, running in her first race for 4 months put in a great effort to finish 48th in 28:26 and the quartet was completed by Jim Huddart who had to walk most of the race due to injury in 82nd place in 36:55
Shoreditch 10k
8th October
The Shoreditch 10k is the first in a series of ‘City runs’ organised by Adidas which enables runners to run traffic free through some of the capitals inner city districts.
Carlie Qirem, one of a number of athletes to race twice in 2 days after competing in the Essex relays the day previously, was Ilfords sole representative on the day clocking in a fantastic time of 48:35 for 1013rd place. There were 4,120 finishers.
