Southern Mens League -Stuart Surpasses expectations
Ilford's talented young athletes powered their way to an impressive 3rd place at the opening Southern Mens league match of the year, recording eight
personal best performances held at Basingstoke last Saturday. Star of the day was 15 year old Simeon Stuart who beat his personal best in the long jump by almost one metre to record 5.99 metres. The 13 strong team was dominated by youngsters with over half of the team under 23 years old. Seventeen year old, Gary Smallman returned from a winter of injury to record an excellent winning time of 10.9 seconds in the 100m and an outstanding leap of 13.58m for second place in the triple jump. Gary sadly pulled up in the 200m due to hamstring injury but this did not stop him from recording a second win in 23.0 seconds. Gary was ably supported by Salim Patel who recorded 11.1 and 23.6 seconds in the 100m and 200m respectively.
Elsewhere, Ilford debutant Nathaniel Senior leapt to an impressive 12.67 metres for a B string victory in the triple jump, while Sam Malekout showed good early season form with 5.94m and 1.55m respectively in the long jump and high jump. John MacDonald showed determined form, reacting to the last lap dash with a 63 second finish to record 3rd in the 1500m (4.22.5). John and injury troubled Rob Nixon met the challenge of a strong wind and slow start to respond to lightening finishes in the 800m, both recording 2.03. London marathon star, Malcolm Muir shrugged off aching legs, to record his first sub 16 minute time since 2001 with a time of 15.59.8.
The throwing squad of Wes Clarke, Sol Anwar, Craig Burrow and Sam Malekout scored an amazing 32 points out of 40 to form the backbone of the team. Wes overcame the pain of a back injury to win and break the 40 metre mark (40.13m), while Sol repeated the feat with a win in the shot putt (12.95m). Craig demonstrated his all-round ability with a total of 14 points from 20.
Iain MacDonald (17 years old) took on the punishing 3000m steeplechase with an impressive debut of 12.22.3, and impressed all with his fluent hurdling. Matt Maple fought well to complete the difficult double of 5000m and 3000m steeplechase, missing out on the 17 minute barrier by only 0.1 second.
The squad will hope to build on the current confidence at the next match which will be at Ilford's Cricklefield stadium on 20th May.
Elsewhere:
During the week Ilford's super veteran Jon Batchelor competed int the Serpentine 5k in a very competitive masters field. John clocked a very fast 18:54 but was just pipped as the first M60 1by Peter Beecham 18:53 . However John easily got the better of the other notable M65 in the race Les Presland 19.08.
John was back in action on Monday in the Ted Pepper 10k accompanied by fellow "super oldie" Pam Jones . The overall race was won by Mark Steinle in 31:02 with John placing an excellent 41st in 39:20 taking the M65 prize and exacting sweet revenge on arch rival Mike Conway of Invicta who had got the better of the Ilford man in previous years. Pam Jones as expected took the women's over 65 prize in 50.17.
On Sunday Terry Knightley made a welcome return to competeition following a short break when he finished in a respectable 31 Minutes and 9 seconds in the Nicola 5 mile road race. Abdi Berlleen was behind in 31 minutes 25 seconds. Owen Phipps and Joan De'ath continue their comebacks with 37 minute and 44 minute clockings respectively and Mel Jones also on the comeback trail used the race as a training run.
Essex Championships - Day 1
Ilford AC put on a great show on Monay by staging the County's premier athletics event of the Bank Holiday weekend, Day 1 of the Essex Track and Field Championships, at the Cricklefields Stadium. A team of 21 athletes from the host club competed and by the end of a long day had achieved 6 PB's, many finalists, some excellent debutant performances and a GOLD MEDAL.
NETHANEEL MITCHEL-BLAKE shines through the cloud and rain and JUMPED for glory in the Boys U/13 Long Jump winning GOLD.
In the U/13 Boys Nethaneel Mitchel Blake has continued where he left of last season. He was competing in 2 events the 200m and Long Jump. In the 200m he qualified in his heat with a time of - 29.06s. The semi-final saw he smash his PB with a tremendous time of - 27.54s to advance to the final, unfortunately he was just pipped to a medal and finished 4th in a time of - 28.45s. In his other event Nethaneel was superb and leaped to an impressive - 4m 78 to claim GOLD just 3cm outside the CLUB RECORD. Alex Legon competing in his 1st Essex champs individually ran a sound 1500m and although the competition was very tough ran a time of - 5m 58.75s a debut for him at this distance. The other competitor was the debutant Youcef Zatat who did the shot putt. Although very nervous before and during the event he putt a distance of - 7m 69cm to come 8th and qualify for three extra throws, however he was unable to improve his distance, well done for a very good effort.
The U/15 Boys had 9 athletes with the majority of them taking part in the discus. Debutant Robert Legon threw a distance of - 22m 56cm which was a PB by over 3 metres, Andy Carle threw - 22m 88cm for a PB, and Aaron Akisanya who was stepping up this year threw - 21m 08cm. Andrew Townsend distance was not known yet, and all three unfortunately did not make it to the last 8 for an extra 3 throws. On the other hand Chris Dawe threw a PB distance of -25m 92cm a good 1m 70cm than his previous best to finish in 7th place, whilst Vivek Joshi threw - 25m 13 for 8th overall. Jerrell Alleyne ran the 200m and ran a solid time of - 26.8s in his heat that was enough for qualification to semis. The semis was much tougher and he was unable to finish in the required position finishing 4th and therefore not qualifying for final. The remaining 2 athletes took part in the 1500m. Liam Leddy running his 1st competitive run at this distance ran a creditable time of - 5m 24.54s but due to the stiff opposition was unable to progress. Mohammed Swamad however ran an excellent time of - 4m 40.04s in his heat to go forward to the final. In a very competitive and at time very fast final he was able to run a very good time to come home 7th in an even better time of - 4m 37.8s.
There was 2 U/17 boys that competed both in the 200m. Bakr-Al-Akku ran a time of 25.47s in his heat to just miss out as one of the fastest losers in 13th position when only 12 went through to the final, unlucky there. Ozi.Nzeako who hadn't been training for a few weeks due to holiday found the going tough and was again unable to qualify from his heat to the semis with a time of - 26.9s.
In the U/15 Girls Ilford had 4 competitors 2 for the field and 2 for the track. In the field Charlotte Deacon competed in her lesser discipline of discus and was able to make it to the last 8 for a further 3 throws. She throw a distance of - 17m 38cm just 3cm of her PB, finishing in 8th. Charlie Clements took part in the Javelin and unfortunately throw below par with a distance of - 17m 86 to finish in 6th place. Aimee Jones competing in her first Essex champs as an U/15 ran the 200m. In the heat she recorded a time of - 30.79s and it was good enough to go forward to the semi finals. In that she ran a much better race and improved her time to - 30.45s to finish 6th which was not good enough to get to the final. Lydia Hall ran the 1500m and ran an impressive race in the heat leading for some of it to come home second in a PB time of - 5m 22.7sec which was 3sec better than her previous best, this was good enough for her to go through to the final. In the final some of the girls had obviously saved themselves in the heats and therefore the race was much quicker. Although Lydia found it hard was able to finish 5th with a time slightly down from her heat time with - 5m 32.26s.
The U/17 Girls all competed in the 200m and it was hard going. Laura Townsend coming back from a long injury period especially for it tough and would probably have wanted more time to recover, having said that she ran a solid time of - 30.4s in her heat. Sarah Kigozi came home determined with a time of - 28.9s but they both were unable to proceed any further. The last competitor Rachel Giwa ran a time of - 28.9s and although like Laura seemed to struggle in the home straight was able to qualify in her heat for the semi final. The semi final was like most of the other track events very tough and with Rachel's training probably not what it should be at the moment was only able to finish in a time of - 28.2s which unfortunately although 7 tenth's faster than her heat was as far as she was able to go.
Overall the athletes did well and there are some promising performances for so early on in the season. With the correct training and determination there is surely only but good things that await them in the future. The next meeting for the U/17's Boys & Girls is the Eastern Young Athletes meeting on Sunday 07th May at Stevenage
