Press Report 1st March 2016  

Roding Valley Half Marathon
Woodford
Sunday 28 February

The Roding Valley half marathon took place on a chilly, breezy Sunday morning on a challenging course from the Ashton Playing Fields around Woodford but the runners from Ilford AC rose to the event and posted times close to their best for the distance. Leading the way with an excellent run was Steve Philcox who placed 6th overall in a field of 571 finishers in a time of 1hr 21mins 07 secs, which won him the M50 age category prize. Kevin Wotton came home 44th in 1h 28m 05s with Declan Cullen recording 1h 42m 28s for 176th with Steve Parker the next over the line 11 seconds later, In position 234 Billy Green came home in 1h 52m 21s, while Baldev Singh ran 2.11.16 for position 471.

Bree Nordin placed 12th lady and 128th for 1h 38m 44s and took first place in the F50 grouping. Rachel Halpin ran a personal best for the distance of 1h 57m 12s in 72nd spot among the ladies., while Nicola Chester put in a good performance for 103th female in 2h 05m 23s

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Tokyo Marathon
Sunday 28 February

Ilford ACs Nicola Hopkinson travelled further afield to take part in the Tokyo Marathon. This race has a field of around 36000, with marathon running being of a high standard in Japan. Nicola ran her best race at the distance for 8 years on a warm, sunny day recording 3h 44m 51s.

Other Races

Meanwhile Malcolm Muir placed 8th overall out of a field of 264 finishers and first over-40 in the Serpentine “Last Friday” 5K in a time of 17m 04s. John Batchelor, in his first outdoor race for over a year following a serious back injury, finished 169th overall, but comfortably beat the course over-75 record by 51 seconds recording 22m 34s.

Batchelor had also ran 2:51.57 in the Vets AC Indoor 800m a couple of weeks ago, which puts him third on the UK indoor all-time M75 rankings. Last Sunday in the Southern Vets AC Championships he ran 2:52.16 followed by a 12:38.47 3000m for 2nd on the all-time indoor rankings.