Press Report Ilford AC 26/08/2014
Barking Park 5Km
Monday 25 August
On a wet bank holiday Monday morning in Barking Park the 6th round of this summers ELvIS competition was held and Ilford AC were out in force fielding 26 runners in the field of 214
The mens team were led by Tom Gardner in an excellent 2nd place in 16 mins 02 secs, backed up by Ahmed Abdullah in 3rd in 16m 33s.Steve Philcox showed good form in 8th and 1st in the M40 category with 17m 06 and half a step behind was Sam Rahman with the same time and a new personal best time. Kevin Newell placed 12th in 17m 36s and Neil Crisp recorded 18m 39s in 28th spot and 2nd in the M50 group. Rohan Alexander closed the scorers with a new best time in 38th of 19m 23s. Ilford won the match in a close fight with East London Runners and retained the league title with one match to go.
Krystle Balogun was the first of the club’s ladies to finish in 4th spot in 19m 43s, a personal best, backed by Bree Nordin, who returned to top form, in 8th in 21m 09s, winning the F55 grouping. Jenni Sheehan improved her best time by 44 seconds to place 8th, with Mel Jones 10th in 22m 06 and 3rd in the F45 category. The Ilford scoring 4 won the match and are now just 1 point behind East London with one match to go at Valentines Park at the end of September.
The club had a couple of runners returning to action following injury; Iain Knight placed 57th in 20m 21s, Dan Cogan 66th with 20m 46s and Natalie Crisp in 152nd and 26m 10s and Sharon Honey 171st and 28m 01s raced for the first time in a few years.
There was a good showing of the older members in the M60 age group. Andy Catton was 2nd in 20m 24s, Peter Ryan, usually a race walker but having a run out, 3rd in 20m 26s and club coach Rob Sargent 7th in 22m 34s
Also recording new best times for the distance were Declan Cullen in 22m 37s and Billy Green with 22m 45s.
Also Ran: Dianne Crisp (120th 23m 29s) Steve Cheal ( 127th 23m 58s) Nicola Hopkinson (128th) Carol Muir (154th) Suki Jandu (157th) Pam Jones (188th)
Woodford Green Open Meeting
Tuesday 19 August
There was representation from Ilford AC in the last open meeting of the summer at the Woodford green track last week, which was held in good conditions for running.
First up was the 400m where Kieran McKenna won his heat in 62.20 secs while Bradley Brown equalled his personal best time of 66.41secs.
In the 1500m Steve Philcox ran a good race recording 4mins 38.5secs, while Bree Nordin improved her best time for the year to 5min 49.68sec.
There was a consistent run in the 3000m where Kevin Newell finished 6th in a new personal best time of 9m 47.51s. Kieran McKenna raced at this distance for the first time recorded 10m 48.25s.
Eltham Open Meeting
Wednesday 20 August
Sam Rahman travelled to the Sutcliffe Park in Eltham to take part in the BMC Open Meeting. He ran in a quality field in the 5000m.
Rahman ran steadily picking up the pace with 3 laps to go to finish in 17th place in 17mins 01.7 secs. This is his fastest time for the distance, although it is first on the track, the others being road races.
SouthwarkPark Run 23/08/14
Elsewhere Chris Togwell completed the Souhtwark Parkrun in 19th place clocking a very respectable time of 21:41 whilst pushing his 18 month toddler,Lukas, round in a buggy.