Ilford AC Press Report April 10th 2017  

A fantastic weekend for Ilford AC with medals, P.B’s and records a plenty.
Whilst medals are great I continue to thank everyone though that puts on an
Ilford vest and competes. Well done everyone and thank you

*British Masters 10km*
*Sunday 9th April*
Gravesend Cyclopark

A squad of 10 Ilford AC travelled to Kent to take part in the British
Masters 10km Championship held of 4 laps on the rolling Gravesend
Cyclopath. This masters only event, restricted to athletes over 35 years
old, had strong entry and was raced out on a sunny morning and saw Ilford
return home with six medals, 3 individual and 3 team.. Best for Ilford was
Terry Knightley who showed good form to finish 28th overall and 5th in the
M55 category in 40 mins 38 secs. Next home was Dennis Briggs who took an
incredible 9 minutes off his personal best recording 43m 44s for 47th and
5th in the M40 grouping. Steve Parker battled to 57th with 44m 45s for 6th
in the M60 age category. Tony Hyde was slowed by a bee sting midrace and
had to seek medical assistance but kept going to finish on 46m 08s (and a
medal place), and 65th Satha Alaganandasundaram set another new best time
as he came home in 47 m 06s. The mens squad was completed by club endurance
club rob Sargent in 94th with 52m 25s and 10th in the M60 category.

Best for the ladies was Nicola Hopkinson who finished 88th in 50m 09s and
just missed out on the podium with 4th in the F50 age group. Dianne Crisp
came home 92nd and won the bronze medal in the F55 grouping in 51m 23s
while Carol Muir took silver in the F45 age category in 103rd with 63m 42s.
The evergreen Pam Jones added to her tally of British titles with victory
in the F80 group in 67m 40s.

In the team competition the Ilford ladies won the British F45 title with a
team of Nicola Hopkinson, Dianne Crisp and Carol Muir., while there was
silver for the men’s M55 team of Satha Alaga, Steve Parker and Terry
Knightley. The club also took a bronze in the M35 group with Dennis Briggs,
Tony Hyde and Rob Sargent

*JUNIORS*
*Samuels break 36 year club record with Outstanding run*

A small number of Ilford AC youngsters competed at the Havering open
meeting on Sunday 9th April.
Aaron Samuel, who has come off a great x country season had his mind set on
breaking the Ilford AC club record that has stood for over 36 years.
Appropriately the previous holder of the record was one of Aaron’s coaches
Gary Float.
Aaron set off with an extremely fast first lap and was already 50 metres
ahead of the field
He continued his dominance for the remaining part of the race and sprinted
down the home straight to win in an outstanding 4:20.3,half a second inside
the previous record
This performance ranked Aaron currently 5th in the country over 1500m .

Another excellent performance came from Matthew Hick in the u13s 1500
Matthew took the race from the beginning to try and build a lead from his
competitors but came down the final home straight with a competitor next to
him. However Matthew found some extra strength and was able to beat the
Havering athlete and run a personal best of 5.11, more than 10 seconds
inside his best ever time

Mungo Prior, came off a hard winter to run an 800 m as his opener for the
season and ran a credible 2.16.

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