Ilford AC Press Report. 8th March 2022  

British Indoor Masters Athletics Championships
Lee Valley
Mar 5-6th 2022:

At the British Masters Indoor Championships, Ilford stalwart Krystle Balogun announced her arrival on the scene with a superb silver medal in the W35 200m. Her time of 26.56 seconds improved upon her previous indoor personal best set just a fortnight ago in winning the Essex indoor title.
She has her aims set on representing Great Britain at the World Outdoor Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland later this summer.

Chingford League Relays
Wanstead Flats
Saturday 5 March

The final fixture of this winter’s Chingford League relays was held on a grassland course with some softer muddy sections over a 2 mile lap on Wanstead Flats.

Just before the Seniors Ilford AC were able to field a full U13 boys team in the juniors run,  consisting of Ryder Islam, Noah Crawley, Tyran Pabia and Jayden McDermott.
The youngsters put in a fine effort on the muddy ground to finish in3rd place of the 12 competing teams.

The Ilford Senior men’s A team was led off by Paul Grange, who ran an excellent leg, handing over to Neil Crisp in 11 minutes exactly. Crisp ran a strong leg in 13 mins 22 secs to hand over to Ronan Edwards in 5th.  Ronan held the position passing on to his brother Rhys in 11 mins 25 secs and Rhys brought the team home with a leg time of 12 mins 20 secs and a total team finish in 48 mins 07 secs. This placed them 5th in the division 1 match.

Ilford fielded a mens B team as well which was led off by Dennis Briggs recording 14 mins 55 secs for his leg. Next up was Andy Catton in 14 mins 49 secs followed by Jim Tilbrook (18m 03s) and Trevor Robinson (18m 08s). The team finished 6th out of the 112 teams competing.

The Ilford Ladies were in 6th place in their division 1 match after the first leg where Amy-Louise Bird recorded 14 mins 33 secs. Gaye Young gained a place on the second leg running 16 mins 04 secs and Hannah Sheikh maintained the 5th spot with 16 mins 26secs’ Pauline Tester brought the team home with 17 mins 23 secs and a total time of 64 mins 56 secs to finish in 6th place.

Over the season where Ilford have not been able to field full teams due to a congested winter fixture list the mens and ladies teams finished 7th and 8th in division 1 and next season will drop to compete in division where they aim to challenge for promotion back to division 1

ESSEX 20 MILE CHAMPIONSHIP
Saffron Walden
Sunday 6th March

The Essex 20 mile road racing championship was held on the disused RAF Debden base near Saffron Walden on a fine but chilly Sunday morning. The course being on the runways was flat and fast and consisted of 5 laps of 4 miles. Ilford Ac had9 entries and returned home with 6 new personal bests, 2 new club records and 4 medals.

The team were led home by Dan Holeyman in 32nd place in a new best time of 2hrs 9 mins 45 secs with Sam Rahman close behind with 2hrs 10 mins 37 secs in 37th spot.
Completing the scorers was Terry Knightley, who is in great form at present, recording 2hrs 16 mins 07 secs for 51st. The performance earned him the county title and gold medal in the M60 age category and improved his Ilford M60 club record.

The club was the 7th club to finish as a team.

Diarmuid Mac Donnell came home in a new personal best time of 2h 16m 07s in 54th place and Joel Denning recorded 2h 43m 26s for 83rd .

The Ilford ladies had a good day with all four of the team setting new best times for the distance.
Captain Carlie Qirem was the 8th lady to finish in 2h 27m 25s, which is a new Ilford club record for the F35 age group with Joanne Reeves just 2 places back in 2h 29m 46s.
Alison Sale recorded 3h 3m 18s to place 34th and earn herself the county gold medal in the F55 grouping, and Frieda Keane finished 39th in 3h 24m 59s  and won the silver medal, also in the F55 category.
On the day the team finished 4th, just 1 point away from the bronze position.

As a footnote Terry Knightley’s performance from The Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday 27th February has qualified him for a 2nd England vest  to represent the country at The Chester Half-Marathon on Sunday 15th May.
The other England vest he won recently was at the Chessington 10K and that representative race for England will be at The Bristol 10K on Sunday 25th September.