Press Report 7th June 2022  

The second Young athletes league match was held at Chelmsford at the weekend. Even though the Jubilee celebrations were taking place all over the country ,the key Ilford AC youngsters turned up at Chelmsford to compete for their club.

With very strong opposition it was a great achievement to see Ilford win 2 of the events in the Mens u17s. Firstly Oliver Blainey maintained his winning record over 400 in the league and Essex Championships this year with a comfortable win in 51.4. Oliver has Essex Schools this weekend where he will need to run a much quicker time to get a spot at the English schools. The other winning run was by Ronan Edwards in the u17S 1500. Ronan ran a very disciplined race and stayed behind the leaders for the first 3 laps and then pushed away from the field to win in a personal best of 4.18. Ronan is also hoping for success at this weekends Essex schools

Joseph Grange came down distances at the league to run both the 800 and 400 and competed to a very  high standard. The 800 was a fast race but as usual Joseph gave his all to come 4th in 2:08. In the 400 Joseph was 3rd in 58.5. Hopefully this speed work will help Joseph in his Essex school race at the weekend

Mohammed Zoumatt ran 12.7 in U17s 100 for 5th place

In the U15s Ilford had 5 Youngsters competing. First up was the 800 and James Thake and Samuel Crane ran well in a very competitive race. James let the leaders get away but rallied at the end for a time of 2.17 for 4th Place. Samuel also ran well to get 2.26 for 5th Place. James returned in the 300 to run 41.7 and 4th place

Aaron Hick decided to  also come down distances and run the 300 and 200 and ended up with 2 big PBs. In the 300 Aaron ran 43.4 for 3rd place and 28.1 in the 200 for 5th place

Ryder Islam ran another big personal best in the U15 B 1500 in 5.11 and a third place finish. He also competed in the long jump with 2.81m and threw the Shot putt 4.26th for 3rd place. Samuel Crane also did the discus with a throw of 11.68

Hatfield Broad Oak 10km
Friday 3 June

The 35th HBO 10km was held on Bank Holiday Friday on a rural rolling figure of 8 course on closed rural roads around the picturesque village of Hatfield Broad Oak as part of their Jubilee Festival. There were 4 runners from Ilford AC in the large field with the club being led home by Joel Denning in 71st place with a creditable time of 42 mins 24 secs. Adam Coals also had a solid run in 76th spot in 43 mins 09 secs. There was an impressive performance by Joanne Reeves who finished 11th in a strong ladies line up and 3rd in the F40 category. Her time of 43 mins 59 secs gave her 97 overall. Club endurance coach Rob Sargent also had a run out recording 57 mins 44 secs for 525th out of the 989 finishers.
For Coals, Reeves and Sargent it was their best time for the distance for 3 years.

Orion Harriers Forest Five Series
Epping Forest
Saturday 4th June

The first in the series of three Forest Five mile runs took place on Saturday over a challenging cross country course in Epping Forest.
Competing in his first race for 4 years Ilford’s Declan Cullen put in a solid run to finish 55th in a time of 43:51