Press Report 12th February 2019  

Hawassa Half Marathon
Ethiopia
Saturday 9th February 2019

Two Ilford athletes, Doris Gaga and Julie Galea traveled to Ethiopia this weekend to take part in the Hawassa Half Marathon.

The race is the brainchild of Ethiopia’s greatest distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, who was in attendance to support the event with all proceeds going towards the conservation of Lake Hawassa and the Hippopotamus which live there.

Both athletes had trained hard for the event, however with an altitude of 1700m above sea level and temperatures hovering above 30 degrees the winter training in Ilford was never going to be able to prepare them fully for the race.

Both runners however thoroughly enjoyed the run, a mixture of road and trail including a loop of Lake Hawassa, and were pleased with their times.
Doris Gaga led the pair home in a time of 2:04:00 which placed her 15th female on the day, with Julia coming in not long after in a time of 2:18:41 which placed her 23rd female finisher.

Both runners were able to grab a couple of photos with racing legends Mo Farah and Haile Gebrselassie

 

Mercury 10
Epping Forest
Saturday 9th February 2019

The Mercury is a tough 10 mile run through Epping Forest containing plenty of hills and mud – not a race for the novice runner.

2 of Ilfords finest runners tackled the race this weekend, both putting in fine performances.
First home was Gary Coombs, showing impressive form after an injury lay off, who came home in 9th place with a time of 1:10:53. This was also good enough to place him 2nd M45 runner on the day.

Gary was followed home by Diamuid MacDonnell who came home in a fine time of 1:20:57 for 26th place on the day.

 

Queen Elizabeth Park Half Marathon
Stratford
Sunday 10th February 2019

Sunday saw the first ever running of the Queen Elizabeth Park Half Marathon.

The closed road route took runners past all the iconic locations situated in the park including the Olympic Stadium, The Copper Box arena, The Aquatics centre and included a lap of the one mile Lee Valley Velopark outdoor circuit before finishing by The ArcelorMittal Orbit.

First home for Ilford on the day, clocking a new pb on the way, was Alison Sale in a time of 2:06:54.

Following Alison was Ilford AC race walking coach Stuart Bennett who switched disciplines for the race to come home in 2:16:15.

Also running was Verna Grant who has recently started training with Ilford. Vernas aim was a sub 3 hour time so she was very pleased with her finish time of 2:54:25