Press Report. London Marathon 2019  

There were 12 runners from Ilford AC among the 42438 finishers in last Sunday‘s London Marathon won by Eluid Kipchoge in a fast 2 hrs 2 mins 39 secs.

Best for the club was Amin Kolkai who finished 200th in 2 hrs 35 mins 06 secs and placed him 10th in the M45 age category.
Next home was Dan Holeyman with a new personal best time of 3 hrs 09 mins 53 secs, while Tom Joy recorded 3 hrs 27 mins 32 secs,.

Carlie Qirem led the ladies challenge for Ilford and also improved her best time by 19 minutes to 3 hrs 39 mins 37 secs.
Steve Parker found the second half of the race tough finishing 3 hrs 55 mins 25 secs, just 6 seconds behind was Anna Crawley who ran a well judged race of 3 h 55 m 31 s.

Bree Nordin was another who had a tough day recording 4 hrs 07 mins 55 secs finishing as the 60th in the F60 grouping.  Julia Galea was also in that category finishing 89th in 4 hrs 19 mins 01 secs, just 30 seconds outside of her personal best.
Tony Young started well but suffered in the second half due to an knee injury and came home with 4 hrs 37 mins 03 secs.

Rachel Halpin finished her first marathon for 4 years in 4 hrs 43 mins 41 secs and Frieda Keane made her debut at the distance in 4 hrs 48 mins 16 secs.

Ilford AC also provided 70 enthusiastic hard working volunteers for the Lucozade station at Mile 19

Former Scottish International athlete Stuart Bennett, a London Marathon regular, succeeded in his aim to race walk the event in under 5 hours.
He started well passing 10 miles in good heart, before suffering a dip in form between 12 and 14 miles, after which he rallied and progressed well towards the 21 miles’ mark.
From then on, he “hung on” with determination to cross the line in 4:55.56.
In the closing stages wife Kim was beside the course to give encouragement.