Press Report 14th February 2023  

ESSEX CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE
Saturday 11th February
Hainault

The final leg of this winter’s Essex  League was held at Hainault Forest over a traditional tough and hilly cross country course in good weather conditions.
The match was hosted by Ilford AC who also fielded 23 athletes in the fixture.

One of the first races of the day was the u15 boys who raced one large lap of the course, approx. 4.5k. Ilford AC were able to put out a full team and the promising season for the boys continued with good placings for all.
Samuel Crane came home in 7th, Ryder Islam 15th, Aron Berhe 21st and James Thake  23rd.

The team finished 5th on the day and 4th overall for the season

The senior ladies raced over 6k and were led home by Jordan Hinds who has had an excellent season in 12th place in 26 mins 20 secs. In the individual table for the league Jordan placed 9th. 
Next home was Anna Crawley with 29 mins 07 secs for 31st with Alison Sale in 46th with 30 mins 51 secs and 5th in the F 55 category. Alison just missed a medal in her age group placing 4th by 1 point.
A good run from Pauline Tester closed the club’s scorers as she came home 62th in 32 mins 53 secs.

In this match the ladies finished in 6th and occupied the same position in the final division 1 league table.

Also in action were Hannah Sheikh in 69th, Dianne Crisp 83RD and 4th in the F60 group. Julia Galea 102th and 1st in the F65 age category and Frieda Keane 105th.

The senior men’s race was over 8km and the Ilford squad were led home by Tom Gardner in 15th with 31 mins 30 secs. Tom is another runner who has had a good winter placing 6th in the individual table for the season. Steve Philcox was also in good form finishing 48th with 34 mins 28 secs and 1st in the M545 age group. Over the season Steve placed 2nd in his category and took home the silver medal.
The ever reliable Malcolm Muir came home 66th with 35 mins 44 secs and won the bronze medal in the M45 group for the winter. 
Berekhey Berakhy who is taking part in cross country for the first time this year placed 77th in 36 mins 38 secs and U20 runner Dylan Harrod was 84th with 37 mins 02 secs, which placed him 7th in his age group..
The last scoring runner for Ilford was Seb Parris in 89th with 37 mins 46 secs.

In this fixture Ilford finished 5th and their final division 1 placing was 6th, the same as the senior ladies.

Supporting Ilford runners were  Alex Richards who was leading the pack before having to pull out with a calf injury, Steve Crane 108th, Neil Crisp 111th, Dan Holeyman 129th and Bradley Brown 143th 

The club would like to thank the army of volunteers, some of whom were in position for over 3 hours, some who volunteered before their own races and some of whom turned up at 8am to mark out the course. Without volunteers there would be no race, so thank you very much