Young Athletes Report Monday 20th March 2017  

*Inter Counties Championship Loughborough 4.5k U15M Cross Country 11th
March 2017 *

As the Cross Country season draws to an end, two of Ilfords
young athletes were chosen to represent Essex in the Inter Counties
Championship, which was recently held at Loughborough. Both Mungo Prior and
Aaaron Samuel have had great winters and getting their Essex Vests was well
deserved.

The Inter Counties brings the top 8 Athletes from all counties across the
UK and is a very high standard of competition. The Ilford boys got caught
up in the very fast start and spent the rest of the race working there
through the field. Aaron eventually finished in 80th place in a field of
nearly 300 with a time of 17:10 and Mungo was close behind in 92nd In a
time of 17:14
The Ilford pair helped Essex place 13th in the team event.

​
17 year old Ahmed Abdulle now running in the
​U20 event​
gave a creditable effort in coming home in 22nd place in 28-45
​, just 1 minute and 4 seconds behind eventual winner Ben Dijkastra of
Leicester​
with his Essex team finishing in 7th place​
​ in the 8k cross country event​

*English Schools Cross Country Championship Norwich 18th March 2017*

One week later Aaron was again representing Essex in the English Schools
Cross Country Championships at Norwich, after previously the Essex Junior
boys championships, everybody was hopeful of a good run from Aaron. Not
content with a good run Aaron produced a great run and came in 15th, in a
time of 13:01 for the 4000m course which is one of the best places ever
from an Ilford male athlete.
​Ahmed Abdulle, carrying a slight hamstring injury battled on to finish
26th in a field of 324 runners in a time of 23:05 for the 7.2k Cross
country event.
Both Aaaron and Ahmed were part of the Essex winning team on the day who
took the Liverpool trophy​ for the boys aggregate score from Kent by just 1
point.