Press Report 29th March 2016  

Isle of Wight Easter Races

Ilford AC’s Malcolm Muir spent the Easter weekend competing in the Isle of Wight where he enjoyed mixed fortunes in two separate races as a result of leading runners going off course.
On Saturday he ran in the Newport to Ryde 7mile multi terrain race where he finished 4th in 46mins 10 secs .However he had been in 2nd place for most of the race about 20 seconds behind the eventual winner when with 800m to go he took a wrong turning and ended up doing an extra 1000m. The winner was Ben Douglas of Notts in 43.20.

Monday’s race was the West Wight 3 hills 8m multi terrain event held at Freshwater where coincidentally with 400m to go Muir was again occupying 2nd spot about 45 secs behind Andy Greenleaf of Serpentine. This time it was the leader who went wrong with the result that Muir was first across the line 1 min in front of 2nd and 3mins in front of the erstwhile leader. Sportingly he gave the Serpentine man the cash prize and then asked the organisers to change the results to show Andy Greenleaf to be the winner by one second, in his own words “That was the fair way to do it I think”.

IAF World Half Marathon Championships
Saturday 26 March

Cardiff

Declan Cullen of Ilford AC was among the 12000 plus who ran in the open race staged in conjunction with the World Half Marathon Championships last Saturday. Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya was a strong winner of this event in 59mins 10 secs with Britain’s Mo Farah also breaking the hour for a bronze. Further down the field Cullen ran his usual consistent pace throughout reaching 10km in 48m 53s. Despite the deterioating weather conditions he pushed on to finish 2180th in a new personal best time of 1h 40m 07s.

Young Athletes Report

Ilford AC’s young endurance squad continued their build up for the summer track season by taking part in this weekend’s parkrun at Valentines Park. Many of the squad have been picked by the Borough for the Mini Marathon which is part of the London Marathon. So the parkrun was ideal preparation.

After the bright sunny weather on Good Friday, the field of over 200 were greeted with a cold windy Saturday morning. However this did not stop the Ilford youngsters being immediately to the front of the field. After the first 400m there was a breakaway group of three containing Mungo Prior and Jack Halil. Also inside the top 20 were Jordan Hinds and Bradley Deacon with both Matthew Hick and Euan Johnstone also in close attendance.
As the lap progressed Mungo had taken the lead and had pulled away from most of the field, but Colin Read of Orion was hanging on. Jack was unfortunately suffering a bit after his fast start, but was still moving well. The ever smiling Jordan was still moving through the field and was now the first lady. Bradley was having a much better run than his last parkrun outing and was also moving through the field. Matthew had trouble with his laces and had to stop to do them up, but after the short stop he was flying. Euan was racing on the road for the first time over this longer distance, but looked completely at ease.
Into the second lap the more experienced Orion runner pulled away, but Mungo still held onto second place in a brilliant time of 18.41(which was the 3rd fastest ever around the Valentines course for his age group). Next home was Jordan in 11th place and first lady in a time of 20.42 a 30 second improvement on her last park run and the second fastest ever by an under 15 lady around Valentines park. Bradley also finished well in 13th place and knocked an impressive 24 seconds off his previous best. Despite having a rough spell mid race Jack, showed his determination and track speed at the finish to come in 14th.
Matthew was a little disappointed with his run, but he was a great 22nd place in a time of 21.41 and is still only 11 years of age. Euan looked strong the whole way round and came in 40th in a time of 23.33.
Special mention to Katie Deacon who was doing her first ever race, despite her pre place plan of running with her mother going out the window, she maintained a perfect pace the whole way round and came in 130th in a time of 31.17.