Press Report 7th February 2023
CHINGFORD LEAGUE 5Mile Road Race
Saturday 4th February
Victoria Park
The latest round of the Chingford League was held in good conditions on the fast course in Victoria Park, Hackney. There was a good turnout of 18 Senior runners from Ilford Ac in the event and the good results, including 5 new personal bests for the distance, showing that their winter training for the upcoming spring marathons and road races is going well.
In this competition Ilford raced in division two and the men’s squad was led home by Sam Rahman, who showed great form to finish 8th in the match in 28 mins 23 secs just 1 second off his best time for the distance. Paul Holloway came back from a spell of injury to set a new best time for 5 miles of 29 mins exactly in 11th spot. Berekhet Berakhy raced the distance for the first time and returned a fine performance in 16th place in 30 mins 52 secs. Richard Woolterton also recorded a new personal best of 31 mins 09 secs for 19th while Diarmuid Mac Donnell came home in 26th with 31 mins 49 secs. Steve Crane closed the teams scorers in 30th with 32 mins 51 secs as the team finished 2nd in the match and are placed 8th in the league.
Joel Denning set a new best time of 33mns 28 secs in 35th with Dennis Briggs 41st with 34 mins 52 secs. Two of the clubs coaches also took part with Gary Floate 47th in 36 mins 18 secs and Rob Sargent 73rd with 45 mins 40 secs
The ladies team were also in good form with Jordan Hinds placing an excellent 3rd in their division 2 match in 32 mins 50 sec. Zuzana Sinalova on her return from her native Slovakia came 4th in 33 mins 19 secs. Hannah sheikh ran a personal best of 37 mins 22 secs in 12th and Gaye Young was next home in 16th in 38 mins 11 secs, closely followed by Pauline Tester with 38 mins 17 secs in 17th and Alison Sale in a new best time of 38 mins 31 secs for 18th.
Supporting these runners were Mandy Reid in 31st in 42 mins 29 secs and Frieda Keane with 47 mins 37 secs in 41st.
In the match the Ilford ladies finished 1st and are placed 6th in the division two table.
Earlier in the day Ilford were able to field a remarkable 15 youngsters over various age groups, which is a testament to the hard work put in to the foundation group at the club by Coaches Ernie Forsyth and Andy Catton.
All the youngsters put in great performances and can be proud of their runs.
In the U11 Boys we fielded 4 runners with Khalif Ali 4th, Zac Forsyth 13th, Andre Mullings Roache 30th and Saif Crane 44th.
5 runners represented us in the U13 category. For the boys Kaleb Berhe was 12th, Jayden McDermott 14th and Luke Thake 18th. For the girls Sofia Crane was 13th and Ruby Moffat Virk 14th.
The U15 category was a particularly successful one for the club. For the boys Aaron Hick ran a great race to finish 1st and was very closely followed by Ryder Islam in 3rd place and James Thake in 5th. For the girls Leila Sharma was 5th and Anika Sharma 7th.
Finally in the U17boys Mohamed Zergouat ran very well for 6th place in a strong field.
