For
the third consecutive year Ilford AC fielded
2 squads in the annual ECCA National Cross
Country Relay Championships held at Berry
Hill Park, Mansfield on Saturday. Newham and
Essex Beagles took the senior men’s title
for the first time with Ilford being the
second Essex club to close with the “A”
squad occupying 81st position.
On
a traditional course comprising of grass
sections, climbs and twisting woodland paths
and measured at approximately 5k, Club
captain Malcolm Muir led the club on the 1st
of 4 legs each comprising 2 laps. Muir ran
exceptionally strongly bettering his time of
last year to finish in 16mins 46 before
handing over to Rob Nixon. Nixon who is
returning to fitness with every outing came
home in 17.13 to see Matt Maple away on leg
3. Maple confessed to feeling extremely
strong all the way round and his 18.46 was
again another improvement on last year. 53
year old ex international Andy Catton,
surprisingly competing in this competition
for the first time, anchored the squad with
a commendable 19.22.
The B
string consisting of Duncan Turner (22.02),
Martin Clarke (21.06), a rejuvenated Tony
Nixon (17.06), and Pete Whiting (25.54)
battled bravely for 128th and obviously
benefited from the experience of the day.
Elsewhere the Billericay 10k took place on a
cold Sunday morning on a undulating course
with Terry Knightley occupying 21st
position out of a field of 700 runners in a
time of 37mins and 3 seconds.
Marathon man Peter Spelman disproved the
theory that the New York Marathon is not a
PB course when he successfully negotiated
the hills of New York City’s 5 boroughs to
improve his personal best to 3hours 25 mins
and 17secs. Spelman was delighted with his
time which placed him 3306 fastest finisher
out of an estimated field of 30000 plus.
