Press Report 17th January 2022  

Essex Schools Cross Country Championships 
Writtle University
15/01/2022

Four younger athletes from Ilford AC attended this race all representing different regions of the County.

Best performance of the day came in the Inter Boys event. Joseph Grange representing Havering Schools came 4th in a highly competitive race. His performance backs up his recent good form and even more impressive as he was in the lower age group for the race. He moved through the field following a steady start only losing a couple of places in the last kilometre.
Ronan Edwards representing Waltham Forest followed up his fantastic performance in the county event last week with an equally impressive 9th place. He moved through from 12th at half way to finish strongly.

The above earns both Prestigious Essex vests for future races, Joseph for the English schools and Ronan for South Eastern Inter Counties.

The Club also had two competitors in the Junior Boys Race. Ryder Islam representing Redbridge Schools started cautiously but showed good strength in the later part of race to come through the field finishing 44th.
Samuel Crane representing Mid-Essex Schools looked strong throughout but suffered in the last kilometre finishing 31st.
Both should be proud of the selection for the race and can work towards future county events with fellow athletes from their training group.

Benfleet 15
16/01/2022

Ilford AC fielded 4 runners in the Benfleet 15 held at Hadleigh Downs on Sunday.

The course is a very challenging multi terrain course comprising hard sections of the Canvey Island sea wall contrasting with marshland and the undulating Hadleigh downs.

Starting downhill and finishing on a mile long big climb, the race is not for the faint hearted.

Diarmuid Mac Donnell was first home for the Club in a fantastic time of 1 hours 56 mins 33 seconds for 74th place in a field numbering over 600.

Joel Denning who joined the club this January finished next for Ilford, in 112th place in a time of 2.04.14.

Next home was Anna Crawley in 215th place in 2:14:02 for 30th female, followed by Joanne Reeves who also only joined the club this month in 269th place for a time of 2:20:46 and 48th female

The overall race record is still held by Ilford’s Amin KoiKai who clocked 1.22.17 in the 6th running of the race back in 1996, a time that no runner has recently been able to even approach.