Press Report 23rd May 2023  

Ilford produced a great performance in their opening Southern League Match at Braintree at the weekend, having an all day battle with Harlow, and narrowly missing out on their first league victory in nearly 20 years. Ilford’s team had a mixture of young athletes making their debut, experienced veterans and athletes running from injury.

Star performer of the day was Jordan Hinds. She started off the day, with a comfortable front running win in the 800m, followed an hour later with winning the 400m, less than 1/10th of a second outside pb. Not finished for the day, she ran a perfect tactical 1500m, not only winning, but reducing her pb by 5 seconds with a time of 4.53.1.  She also reluctantly threw the discus which gained 3 more points.

Sam Malekout made a welcome return to the team and had his usual haul of points which included, winning the A string Javelin, second placed in both the Shot and discus and 4th in the pole vault. Akwasi Nkrumah despite an injury was another who took on multiple events, with 2nd places in both the 400m hurdles and flat 400m, and then winning the B string pole vault.  Pete Whiting came out of his winter hibernation to gain valuable events in the field with 2nd places in both the B string Javelin and discus, and then 3rd place in the B sting hammer.  Making up the throwing side of the men’s team was Nat senior who won the A string shot and Wes Clarke who was 3rd in the A string hammer.

On the women’s side the sprinters were very impressive; Ellie Wright continues her great start to the season, by winning the A string 100m, and the B string 200m. With the 100m time being won in a legal Pb of 12.5 seconds. Krystle Balogun continues to rack up the Southern League points for Ilford and this time she won the A string 200m, the non scoring 100m and took  2nd in the A string shot putt. Ayshah Lawrence joined Krystle in the shot and in her first attempt at the discipline, took 2nd in the B string. Prior to this Ayshah, came 3rd in the A string 100m and came second in the non scoring 200m.  Anna crawley made up the women’s team and ran really well in taking 4th in the 3000m and a great 2nd in the B string 1500m, before trying her hand at discus and taking 3rd in the A string.

Ilford also scored valuable points in the men’s sprints. Jordon Duncan took 3rd place in the A string 100m, and 2nd in the A string 200m. Malachi Harley ran his best time for 2 years in winning the B string 100m in 11.6. Wanya Williams was impressive in winning the B string 200m, and ran a pb of 11.4 in the non scoring 100m. These three along with Oliver Blainey were dominate in winning the men’s 4x 100m. Young Jeremiah Brown ran 2 non scoring events running a pb of 11.7 in the 100m. Earlier in the day, he had competed in the High jump for the first time and cleared an impressive 1m 55. Oliver Blainey easily won the A string 400m in a time of 53.6 seconds.

Youngsters James Thake and Aaron Hick both made their league debuts,  James ran a very controlled race to win the A string 800m in 2.07.7, before with a bit of persuading from the team manager he took part in the Long jump and 3rd in the A string. Aaron completed the same double and was second in the B string 800m and 3rd in the B string long jump.

The Edwards brothers Rhys and Ronan also doubled up, their first event being the 1500m, where Ronan won the Edwards brothers champs and took second place in the A string, with Rhys taking 4th in the B string. Rhys got his revenge in the triple jump where he won the A string in 11m 38, not to be out done Ronan won the B string with 9m 38.

The long middle distance events were contested by some of Ilford’s older middle distance runners. Tom Gardner ran a very clever tactical race in the 300om, always near the front of the field; he was just out kicked in the final straight, but gained valuable points in 2nd place.  Fabrizio Stefanoni ran well to finish 3rd in the B string 3000m.

Malcolm Muir a survivor from the last time, Ilford came 2nd in a southern League match, had a great run in an eventful steeplechase, leading from the front, his aggressive running made up for his unusual technique. He ran away from the field for a great win. Earlier in the day, he had placed second in the B string 400m hurdles.

The final vent of the day was the men’s 4x 400m and Ilford’s team of James, Jordon, Ronan and Oliver were impressive winners by over 30 seconds.