Press Report. Monday May 7th 2018
Eastern Masters League
Lee Valley
Wednesday 2nd May
The 2018 Eastern masters League kicked off at Lee Valley where Ilford Ac’s Steve Philcox tested his early season form as a guest competitor in the 3000m.
Steve showed his training is on target as he ran a good even pace for the first 5 laps before pushing on in the last kilometre to come home 2nd in 10 mins 07.1 secs.
Assembly league –
Victoria park
Thur 3rd may 7.30pm
Seb Parris raced as a ‘guest’ in this super competitive inner London club league fixture.
Cool weather made the going good on a flat 3.5 mile figure of eight park course.
Seb clocked 20.23 coming home in 89th place. John Crawley also starred smashing an impressive 21.09 out for 126th spot.
5km Swimathon
Nuffield Health centre
Friday 4th may 11am
Seb Parris swam a ‘park run’ 5km in this years swimathon at Ilford Nuffield heath centre.
He touched in 1.28.33 and raised £170 for cancer research in the process.
New Zealand Marathon Championship
Rotorua
Saturday 5 May
Blair McWhirter, who ran for Ilford from 2013-2017 while based in England, was the overall winner at the Rotorua Marathon claiming the 2018 New Zealand marathon titles raced on Saturday around Lake Rotorua.
McWhirter from the Sumner Running Club in Christchurch went to the front of the race from the outset with young Lake City runner Michael Voss (21) and they were joined by Voss’ club mate Sjors Corporaal (40) by the 10km mark.
The three leaders ran together through the hills and past the half way mark, sharing turns at the front for another 17 km in perfect conditions.
At 27km McWhirter, a 35 year old teacher, applied the pressure coming off the last of the hills and the group split up with Corporaal not able to respond and Voss running into trouble.
McWhirter who has a personal best of 2:22.38 set 12 months earlier at the London Marathon, continued to stretch his lead over the final 10km and came home in winning time of 2:29:00, almost six minutes clear of Corporaal.
High Easter 10k Road Race
Chelmsford
Sunday 6th May
Ilford AC Stalwart, Terry Knightley, continued his comeback from a career threatening Calf Tear by coming home in a respectable 22nd place in a field of 255 athletes in a time of 41 Minutes and 19 seconds at the High Easter 10K Road Race in Chelmsford, Essex.
Battling the intense heat of the day and fast early pace, The Once Nine Times Essex County Road Running Champion came 2nd in the Over 55 Age category.
As a point of interest the lead car was none other than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang !
Crystal palace 10km
Sunday 6th may 10am
A hot day in south London saw Seb Parris tackle a 10km 2 lap hilly Crystal palace park course.
The club was invited to attend this race and Seb did us proud finishing in 39.15 for 7th spot.
The only saving grace of the course was he got to see the parks life size plastic dinosaurs twice on the jaunt! What a treat!?!
Witham May day 10
Monday 7th May
300 hundred runners lined up for the inaugural Witham Mayday 10 mile road race including 7 members of Ilford AC.
The race which was held on the hottest Mayday on record on a course that offered little shade and plenty of hills certainly proved a challenge, which was met by the Ilford team.
Coming in first for Ilford was Gary Coombes with a very impressive 6th place and 2nd M40 runner in a time of 1:01:43.
2nd home was Dennis Briggs in 38th place with a PB time of 1:13:27, closely followed by Stephen Parker in 64th place in a time of 1:18:31.
The Ilford mens team was completed by Anthony Young who recorded 1:24:27 for 95th place.
There then followed quite a gap before the final Ilford male came in with Billy Green recording a time of 1:34:58 for 165th place.
1st home for the female team was Frieda Keane who ran an impressive 1:41:28 for 203rd place.
No far behind was Launa Broadley who continued to improve with a time of 1:47:05 for 235th place in her debut run at the distance.
The Ilford ladies team were completed by Carol Muir who put in a gutsy performance to finish in a time of 2:08:40.
Also running was Alison Sale, who has been training with the club for the past couple of months and hopes to soon run for the team. Alison finished in a time of 1:46:13 for 233rd place.
The team was coached/encouraged on the day by club super vet, 82 year old Pam Jones.
Pednor run and race walk challenge
Monday 7th may 5pm & 7pm
Seb Parris made his second appearance at this event after winning the overall crown last year.
The Chilterns was officially the hottest area of the UK on the bank holiday and by the time Seb raced it was still hitting an impressive 26 degrees.
The walk followed by the run both take place 2 hours apart on the same 5 mile hilly one lap course. During the opening race walk Seb was never troubled, leading from the start and finishing comfortably 5 minutes ahead of the 2nd place local walker in a new pb of 39.46.
After a quick change Kylie Minogue would be proud of he took to the start line for the run at 7pm in similar hot conditions.
The walk hadn’t knocked the stuffing from his legs as in a field of 275 he finished in 35th spot clocking 31.34 and retaining the combined 10 mile challenge title by over 10 minutes.
