Press Report 22nd August 2023  

Southern Counties Veterans Athletics Club (SCVAC)

Ilford Victorious in the Vets League in their Centenary Season

The men’s team travelled to the Roger Bannister Stadium on the evening of Monday 14th August holding a 1 point lead over London Heathside into the final match.
Cheered on by Club President John Batchelor and cajoled into unfamiliar events by Team Manager, Henry Ricketts the team took to the track and field for the fourth and last time in the season.
Sam Malekout competing as V35 finished second in the 800m and first in javelin.
Danny Holeyman competed in the 3000m as the V35 athlete and placed sixth.
Chris Scott as V40 placed first in the 800m and fourth in the 200m.
Fabrizio Stefanoni’s sprint finish won the 800m and he also won the 3000m as V50.
Michael Osunsami covered the 200m in the V50 age group placing fifth.
James Lambden had a busy evening as V60 finishing fourth in the 800m, third in the 200m and second in the long jump.
Peter Whiting in the V60 shot and javelin finished fourth and third respectively.
Busiest of the evening was David Butler winning the 800m, third in the 200m, fifth shot, sixth javelin and third long jump all as V70. Coming down to V60 to race the 3000m he finished fifth.
Also competing as a non-scoring athlete in the 3000m, Diarmuid MacDonnell finished eleventh overall and third V50.
The relay team of Chris, Fab, Michael and Sam just missed out on third place for fourth in the 4 x 200m.
Finishing second on the evening to London Heathside meaning both teams were tied on 33 points over the four evenings it was going to come down to match points.
The final result confirmed that the Ilford team won the season by 505 points to 500 proving that every effort should be made to cover an event, because every point counts.
Congratulations to all the athletes who competed over the Vets season and a mention to the supporters and officials who helped over the matches

parkrun Takeover

Last Saturday, as part of Ilford AC’s Centenary year, the club staged a parkrun takeover at Valentines Park, where members were encouraged to wear our centenary tops and promote the club whilst also celebrating our rich history.
In our 100 years, Ilford AC are one of only a few clubs who have never changed our name or colours. Our running vests of white with 2 contrasting blue stripes are exactly the same as they were when we first competed as a club back in 1923.
As well as providing all the Marshals and officials on the day, Ilford also had 18 runners competing and were rewarded with the first 2 finishers, Sam Rahman in 17:56 and Joshua Adler in 19:28

London Summer 10k.

On Sunday the London Summer 10k returned to Regents Park.
The course is a 3 lap route covering the tarmac paths, with runners passing the boating Lake, Regents Park Broad Walk and London Zoo.
This year Ilford AC had only one the one competitor but Billy Green ran well to finish in a time of 54 mins 41 secs which placed him second in his age category