Press Report 30th August 2016
Barking Park 5k
Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 2016
Ilford AC fielded a large squad of 30 runners when successfully contesting the 6th race of this summers’ 7 race Elvis series held traditionally at Barking Park on Bank holiday Monday. After two previous years of torrential rain this year’s event was blessed with some fine sunny weather as the Club’s under 20 star Ahmed Abdulle capped a successful weekend as he sped round the flat 2 lap 5k course to take the victor’s spoils in a new personal best of 15.49. He was well supported by training partner Tom Gardner back in 3rd with 16.15 and with Malcolm Muir, back in action yet still not fully fit taking 11th place in 17.08, the men’s squad also took the Race Team prize defeating the usual strong East London Runners outfit.
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Muir’s was also the top MV40 run of the day and with Sam Rahman, 14th in 17.18, Stephen Philcox,18th in 17.28 and Paul Holloway 24th in 17.56, combining with Abdulle and Gardner to make up the 6 man series scorers Ilford also managed to win the elvis fixture by 71 points to east London’s 108 thus setting up a grand finale and showdown between the 2 clubs at the Valentines Park 10k on September 25th where the winner of the match will also take the series. The Club also had further success with Andy Catton taking the MV60 prize recording 20.59 for 74th spot. There were also notable performances by Satha Alaga and Pathrose Louis who both ran personal bests for the distance of 23.25 and 24.06 respectively.
In the women’s race East London Runners were already in an unassailable position in the series and their strong squad duly took bot the race and series honours. However the Illford ladies battled bravely to put up a good performance led by Breege Nordin who produced the best FV55 run of the day recording 21.00 as 7th woman. Supported well by Zuzana Sinalova 10th in 21.48, Nicola Hopkinson 25th 23.58,and Dianne Crisp 36th 24.59, the Ilford ladies placed 3rd in both the race and series team competitions.
A record 257 runners finished the race as the Elvis series grows in popularity.
Other Ilford performances with overall positions and times were as follows :-
Neil Crisp 35th 18.51, Rohan Alexander 74th 20.16,
Bradley Brown 88th 21.39, Abdi Berleen 93rd 21.43, Billy Green 119th 22.44, Ernie Forsyth 130th 23.22, Stephen Cheal 168th 25.17, Peter Ryan 173rd 25.33, Julia Galea 186th 26.25, 193rd Suki Jandu 26.56, 199th Nichola Fairbairn 27.22, 203rd Rachel Halpin 27.38, 206th Sharon Honey 27.46, 214th Julie Gillender 29.04, 223rd Doris Gaga 29.41, 228th Pam Jones 30.51, 239th Yvonne Forsyth 33.42.