Press Report 11th October 2016
ESSEX CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE
One Tree Hill, Langdon Hills, Stanford-Le-Hope
Saturday 8th October
Young Athletes
Although the weather is still warm, Saturday saw the start of this year’s cross country season. The first race was the opening Essex Cross Country League at One Tree Hill in Thurrock. The Ilford youngsters had athletes in three races.
First up was Aaron Hick who is only 8 years of age and was in the Under 11’s race, despite giving away almost 3 years to some of the athletes Aaron had a great run to claim 22nd place. 
Next up were the U13’s in which Ilford had three athletes,Matthew Hick made a great start and was always up with the leaders, Mario Dobrescu a sprinter by trade was having his first ever outing over the country.The final member of the team Euan Johnstone has missed a bit of training recently so made a cautious start. As the lap progressed, Matthew continued to hang in with the lead group, but was unable to respond when the first three broke away. However he hung to take a brilliant 4th place in a time of 12.48. Mario was enjoying his first outing over the country and worked his way through the field to finish in 18th in 14.03. Euan did not have such an enjoyable run and took a heavy fall in the forest section of the course, he managed to get up and finish in 31st in 15.43. Unfortunately with only three athletes Ilford did not finish a team.
Ilford a had a team of five in the U15’s and Mungo Prior and Aaron Samuels both made good starts, Farris Patel got caught up at the start and had to work to get near the leading group, Jack Halil dressed up for arctic conditions was moving, with Bradley Deacon close behind. Mungo and Aaron continued to remain with the lead group as they moved into the second lap, with Farris still trying to regain contact. Further down, Jack was finding the dry ground to his liking and had moved ahead of Bradley.
As they the last part of the course, Mungo had moved into 2ndplace, but believing he still had another lap to go did not sprint on the final hill and ended up finishing 4th.Aaron had a great finish for 10th place, closely followed by Farris in 13th. The team was closed out by Jack in 33rd place,with Bradley finishing strongly for 45th. Ilford finished with 60points which was good enough for second place behind Thurrock in the team event.
Seniors
Both the ladies and men’s courses were dry but contained a few testing hills. The Senior Ladies raced over 6km and the Ilford challenge was headed by a fine run from Nicola Hopkinson in 50th spot in 32 mins 32 secs. She was backed up by Dianne Crisp in 58th with 34 mins 17 secs and the team was completed by Pam Jones and Doris Gaga in 96th and 97th spot. The team are in the 12 team division one of the league and finished 10th in this match.
The men ran over 8.5km and Ahmed Abdulle, in his first race as an under 20 in the Senior Mens category, was in excellent form and led the race from gun to tape to take victory in 26 mins 23 secs. There was good support from Tom Gardner in 6th with 27 mins 40 secs and Paul Holloway in 30th in 30mins 01 secs. Track runner Simeon Balson-Jones switched surfaces and put in a good performance in 82nd with 33 mins 53 secs, while Tony Nixon recorded 36 mins 20 secs for place 118. The team was completed by Ted Skinner and Steve Cheal in 154th and 164th. The men are also in division one and finished 9th in the match.
TIPTREE 10
Sunday 9th October.
The next morning saw the running of the 2016 Essex 10 mile Championship incorporated into the Tiptree 10 mile road race. The race washeld on quiet rural roads around Tiptree but contained a couple of testing hills . The Ilford team were led home by Malcolm Muir in 5th place in 56 mins 52 secs which earned him the silver medal in the Essex Championship in the M40 category. Next home for the club was Sam Rahman in 16th spot with 60 mins 29secs and the team scorers were completed by Steve Philcox in 33rd in 65 mins 23 secs. Steve finished 3rd in the M50 group and took home a bronze county medal. Andy Catton was the next Ilford man to finish in 73 mins 07 secs for spot 104 and won the Essex Championship in the M60 age category.
Further down the field there were personal best times for Pathrose Louis with 88 mins 56 secs and the club’s only lady competitor Julia Galea with 90 mins 35 secs as she finshed 5th in the W55 group in the Essex race.
Also in action were Steve Parker (282th 78.22) Satha Alaga (190th 81.12) and Rob Sargent (197 82.03)
ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON
Sunday 9th October
Also on Sunday the Royal Parks Half Marathon took place in London. The picturesque route takes in 4 London parks – Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St James Park and Green Park. There were three Ilford competitors in the event. New member Dennis Briggs recorded a new personal best of 1 hr 45 mins 27 secs, while Carol Muir came home in 2 hr 18 mins 47 secs and Doris gaga 2hrs 26 mins 16 secs,