Press Report 20th June 2023  

ESSEX 5000m CHAMPIONSHIP
Ilford
Friday 16 June

Last Friday Ilford AC, in its centenary year, hosted the Essex 5000m Championships at its home track of Cricklefields,
It was a successful event with 6 medals including two individual County Golds.

For both men and women three titles were contested, the open, and the two masters categories of V40 and V50.

The ladies all ran in one heat; Neringa Masilioniene was first home for the club and first overall in the FV40 category: her time of 18:06.1 is a club all-time best over the distance for a V40 and second best all time time over the distance in Ilford’s 100 year history.
Next up was Jordan Hinds, fourth in the open category, with 18:26.8, a 44-second improvement over the distance. Anna Crawley ran a very good 21:17.6 for fifth in the open group. Jo Reeves came home in 23:29.2, which placed her fifth in the V40 category.

 The club swept the podium in the V50 category: Gaye Young won the race with 23:20.6; Hannah Sheikh was second in 23:54.4 and Pauline Tester earned a bronze medal with a time of 24:08.4.

The Ilford men ran in 3 separate heats and took home two silver medals with Fabrizio Stefanoni running a well judged race to take 2nd in the M50 age group in 17min 50.7secs and Malcolm Muir giving 100% to take second in the M40 age category in 17 mins 01.4 secs.
Tom Gardner ran the fastest time for the club on the day  recording 15 mins 37.7 secs in a very competitive men’s seniors event for 10th place
In the M50 group Steve Philcox finished in 18 mins 13.0 secs for fourth and Richard Woolterton with 19min 05.4secs for fifth.

Overall an excellent evening of sport, and an event very well organized by the club to mark its Centenary year.

Brading 10k

Prior to Malcolm’s excellent Silver in the Essex 5000m Champs he had ran in the Brading 10k the previous weekend and recorded an excellent time of 36 mins 32 secs to take 2nd place in the M40 category 

Lap of the Gap Marathon

Over the weekend Diarmuid MacDonnell ran the ‘Lap of the Gap’ Marathon in Wicklow Eire.

Starting in Glendalough and heading on through the Wicklow Mountains, the race has over 800m of elevation.
Diarmuid was pleased with his time of 3 hours 21 minutes which placed him 9th out of 140 finishers