Press Report 8th March 2016  

ESSEX 20
Langham
Sunday 6 March

This year’s Essex 20 mile road championship was held on the usual three lap course around the village of Langham near Colchester. The event this year also incorporated an inter counties match between Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Kent and Bedfordshire and Ilford ACs Blair McWhirter was picked to represent the county in their four man team winning his first Essex county vest.

A chilly, breezy Sunday morning greeted the field of almost 400 runners who produced some good results. Leading the way for Ilford was Blair McWhirter, slightly down on his normal pace but still finished an impressive 7th in 1hr 53m 35s, which placed him 5th in the Essex championship. Malcolm Muir put in his usual determined run for the club to come home 12th in 1h 57 21s to win the M40 age category. Sam Rahman closed the scoring team in 48th pace in 2h 07m 44 seconds . The Ilford AC team were placed 3rd team in the county championship to win the bronze team medals. Robin McNelis recorded a new personal best time of 2h 08m 27s in 51st and was placed 9th in the county M40 category. Neil Crisp finished 67th and 5th in the Essex M50 age group in 2h 15m 05s.

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For the Ilford Ladies Jenni Sheehan finished 34th female in the race in her 20 mile debut recording 2h 42m 28s, while Julia Galea posted 3h 19m 26s when crossing the line 3rd in the county F55 grouping to take the bronze, her first Essex medal.