Press Report 26th September 2023  

Essex Cross Country Championships

 Ilford AC had a very impressive squad of 9 teams, and 27 runners, enter the prestigious Essex Cross Country Relay championships last weekend.

The teams consisted of 5 men’s veteran teams, One Senior and one Veteran ladies’ teams and 2 male junior teams.

The day started with the U15 boys with Aron Berhe, Ryder Islam and Sam Horsley finishing in 5^th place followed by our U17 boys with Aaron Hick, Samuel Crane and James Thake running well for 7^th.

The Seniors ran a 2-lap course over difficult terrain.
Kicking off for the ladies were our Senior team of Carlie Qirem, Joanne Reeves, and Jordan Hinds.

First off was Carlie Qirem in a time of 29.51 handing over to Joanne Reeves to run the two-lap course in 32.02. Completing the trio with a fast finish was Jordan Hinds in a time of 27.21 and finishing the team in a very respectable 9th position.

The V50 ladies’ team was led out by Dianne Crisp in a time of 37.50, followed by Alison Sale who finished in 32.49. Finally completing the V50 team was Mandy Reid who stepped up only a few hours earlier, to finish in 38.25 and stand the team in 4th place on the day.

Ilford’s men fielded 3 teams in the V40 Category and one each in the V50 and V60 groupings.
First off in our 3 V40 teams were Tom Gardener, Steve Crane and Seb Parris and it was Tom Gardener who set the pace for the age category running a blistering fast first leg (21.50) to finish that stage in first place handing over to the ever reliable “Mighty” Malcolm Muir who ran a very quick second leg (23.53) to hand over to Berekhet Berakhy in first place, but with two competing V40 runners close behind, to run the final leg. In his first such competition Berekhet ran a superb leg (23.34) to find himself in crossing the line in 3rd place overall with the team earning a well-deserved bronze medal.

The Bronze placed team were supported by two additional V40 teams from the club. These consisted of Seb Parris (27.05), Danny Holeyman (27.44) and Joel Denning (28.01) which earned them 15th place out of 24 teams in their age category as well as Steve Crane (28.45), Dennis Briggs (29.24) and Tarik Qirem (32.31) which left them 19th out of 24 teams.

Turning to the V50 team, these were led off by Richard Woolterton (26.55) who held position well before handed over to Fabrizio Stefani who ran a very fast second leg (24.08) and made ground on the pack before handing over to Diarmuid MacDonnell (26.14) to finish the competition for the team in fourth place only narrowly missing a bronze medal position by seconds.

Finally in the V60 competition the club were represented by three club legends – Terry Knightly (28.15) Ray Dzikowski (28.16) and Neil Crisp (26.48). All ran superbly well with Neil Crisp running a superb final leg to ensure the team rightly won the gold medal in their age category with all being able to add these County medals to their already bulging collection of past accolades and achievements.

Valentines Park 5km (ELVIS)
Ilford
Sunday 24th September

The concluding race of the 2023 ELVIS series was held on a flat fast course in Ilford’s Valentines Park.

Ilford entered 29 runners who all performed well.
Our men secured 6 of the first 12 places to claim first place on the day, finishing the table in 3^rd place over the season.
First home, in first place was Tom Gardner in 15:58, closely followed in 3^rd place by Sam Horsley in 16:32. Samuel Crane came home in 6^th place in 17:31, just in front of Berekhet Berakhy in 7th place in 17:40. Malcolm Muir came home in 10th place in 17:48 with Joshua Adler closing the first place scoring team of 6 in 18:01 for 12^th place.
Stephen Philcox, in 13^th place with a time of 18:13 claimed 1^st VM50 on the day, and Neil Crisp was also amongst the prize winners, claiming 1^st place in the M60 category in 35^th place with a time of 19:52.

Backing up the team were Aaron Hick 23^rd 19:05, Rhys Edwards 24^th 19:06, James Thake 25^th 19:08, Steve Chissell 43^rd 20:26, Tarik Qirem 60^th 21:06, Steven Horsley 66^th 21:24, Adam Coals 71^st 21:31, Gary Floate 78^th 21:47, Craig Livermore 89^th 22:27, Sean Costello 99^th 22:58 and Ramen 151^st 26@03.

Ilford’s ladies also had a very successful morning, finishing 2^nd on the day and securing 2^nd place overall for the season.

First female home, and the first female on the day was Jordan Hinds, who continues her great season with a time of 18:42 for 17^th place. Backing up Jordan in the scoring team of 6 were Carlie Qirem 63^rd 21:12 and Joanne Reeves 70^th 21:30. 4^th home for the ladies and grabbing 1^st place in FV60 placings was Breege Nordin in 98^th place with a time of 22:56. Completing the team were Leila Lauder 105^th 23:17 and Alison Sale 108^th 23:26

Backing up the team, all with good performances were Anika Sharma 125^th 24:41, Pauline Tester 149^th 25:50, Dianne Crisp 164^th 27:42 and Julia Galea 185^th 30:24.

Our combined performances also gained Ilford AC first place in the ‘mixed team category’.

At the conclusion of the Elvis series of 8 races, with best 6 scoring Ilford’s men claimed 1^st place in the M40, (Malcolm Muir), M50 (Stephen Philcox) and M60 (Neil Crisp) categories.