Press Report 10th April 2023  

Apr 102023
 

SEAA Relay Championships
Stratford
2nd April 2023

Ilford AC saw 23 of their athletes travel to the Olympic Park in Stratford last weekend to compete in the Southern & Eastern Athletic Association (SEAA) relay Championships. It was the first time in the club’s history that they had fielded both a male and female team at the event, quite fitting in the club’s centenary year. Furthermore, it had been twenty years since the club had last fielded a team.

The day commenced with the U15 boys 5K race at 11am. The club had three representatives in the race – Samuel Crane, Aron Berhe and James Thake. This triplet run their socks off with Samuel finishing in 9th place (17.49), Aron in 14th place (18.55) and James in 16th place (19.17) . These tremendous performances were rewarded with a fantastic second place overall, taking the silver medal.   

At 11.30am was the under 17 boys’ 5K race in which Ilford’s Ronan Edwards was competing. Ronan equipped himself well and finished in 18th place out of 29th in a time of 17.23.

Next to start were the senior men at 12.00. This race was to be run over 12 legs which alternated between 4.5 and 3 miles, making 45 miles in total. The team, somewhat depleted due to injury and absences, battled hard in a very tough field. First up was Mungo Prior to run the first 4.5-mile leg, handing over to Jak Wright in 35th place in a time of 23.21. Jak had a great 3-mile leg, clocking 16.26 and handed over to his Dad, Paul Grange, for the longer leg. Paul held the club steady with a 24.25 leg before handing over to Dylan Harrod for the shorter leg which he managed to polish off in 17.44 handing over to the ever-reliable Alex Richards on 39th place for the 4.5-mile leg. Alex had a storming run in 23.24 and managed to claw back some places before handing over to Richard Woolterton in 36th place. Richard competed well in the shorter leg recording 18.39 handing onto the club’s fierce competitor Tom Gardner for the longer leg which he completed in 23.50 before handing to the men’s captain, Danny Holeyman, in 38th place for the shorter leg. The quality of the competition was proving tough and after clocking 18.33 Danny handed to the club’s experienced England runner Paul Holloway who pulled the team back to 39th place over 4.5 miles in 26.05. Next up was club newcomer Berekhet Berakhy over the shorter 3-mile leg which he completed in an impressive 17.42 handing off the club legend “Mighty” Malcolm Muir who despite suffering from a slight injury completed his longer leg in 26.57 before handing to Diarmuid MacDonnell to complete the final 3miles of the 45 mile race. Clocking 19.11, Diaurmuid brought the performance of Ilford to a close in a total time of 4 hours 16 minutes and 21 Seconds to finish is 41st place out of the 60 teams competing.  

At 13.00 the senior women race commenced. Along with the competing men, this saw the course become extremely busy which left the spectators with plenty to watch. The women’s race was to be run over 6 legs with legs 2 and 4 comprising 4.5 miles with the remaining legs 3 miles giving a total of 21 miles. First up was Jordan Hinds who completed the 3-mile leg in 18.42 in 25th place handing over to ex-Olympian Neringa Masilionene for the longer 4.5-mile leg. Neringa had a superb run finishing in 9th position on the leg and handing over to Club V60 icon Breege Nordin in 13th place after 26.27 minutes. Breege battled well over the 3-mile leg clocking 22.07 with the team in 21st place. Next for the longer 4.5-mile leg was Zuzana Sinalova who completed the 3 laps in 30.39 minutes handing over to Pauline Tester for the penultimate leg. Pauline finished the 3 miles in 22.51 handing to the ever-improving Anna Crawley to bring the team home in 26th position overall, out of 38 teams,  after completing her 3 miles in 19.58. The total elapsed time for the ladies’ team was 2 hours 20 minutes and 48 seconds.  

All teams represented the club extremely well and were pleased to have completed in this prestigious event. The standout performance being the under 15 boys team silver medal.

VETS AC 5KM ROAD RACE 
Battersea Park
Tuesday 4 April
The first summer race promoted by Vets AC took place over the usual flat, fast course in Battersea Park on a fine evening. It was a 2 lap 5km event and for Sam Rahman of Ilford AC his last race before next Mondays Boston Marathon.  Sam set off at a good pace towards the front of the 100 strong field and maintained this pace to break his eight year old personal best and dip under 17 minutes for the first time finishing in 16 mins 56 secs . He is good form and hopes to come home in under 2hrs 50 mins in Boston.

London Easter 10k
Regents Park
10th April 2023
On Easter Monday the ‘London Easter 10k’ returned to the beautiful surroundings of Regent’s Park. The course took runners past the boating lake and alongside London Zoo on a 3 lap course.
Ilford AC had one runner competing this year, Billy Green, who was pleased with his time of 54 minutes 31 seconds which placed him 11th in his age category 

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