• Press Report 5th March 2007
     

    Ilford AC enjoyed a busy weekend of athletics as club members of all ages competed in a variety of competitions around the regions. The Cricklefields based club fielded 2 men’s and 2 women’s teams in Saturdays Essex AAA’s Road Relay Championships held at Melbourne Park Chelmsford on Saturday. On a sunny but windy open rural course comprising of nearly 4 miles per leg the women faired better than the men with the A squad of Bree Nordin (24.24), Nicola Hopkinson ( 26.38) and Mel Jones (25.45) coming home 9th out of 22 teams. The B squad of Sally Gillam(28.34) , Dianne Crisp (28.25) and Keelie Brooks (26.58) supported well in 14th position.
     
     A depleted men’s team of Malcolm Muir (19.21), Terry Knightley (20.46), Matt Maple (21.08), and Darren Bottrill (23.58) could only manage 16th place in the team competition. The B squad of John Mackenzie (25.30), Neil Crisp (23.06), Duncan Turner (25.06) and Henry Ricketts (26.44) all enjoyed their runs managing 28th position with 33 complete teams closing
     
    Both Bree Nordin and Sally Gillam were back in action in the following day over their more favoured distances at the Thanet 20 mile Road Race. A new coastal route this year proved to be very tough on the athletes as a large field of runners battled the hills and windy conditions. The two Ilford ladies, now heavily in training for the London Marathon, were both pleased with their runs, particularly Nordin who once again emerged victorious in the women’s over 45 category finishing in a very good time of 2hrs 26 minutes. In fact although the race doubled as the Kent Championships it proved to be a clean sweep for the Essex ladies in this category with local rivals Sue Spong of Havering and Julie Palmer of Benfleet occupying 2nd and 3rd respectively. Sally Gillam clocked yet another respectable time in the conditions and her 2.50 mark augurs well for next month’s marathon.
     
    On the track Ilford’s superveterans Pam Jones and John Batchelor competed over two days of competition in the British Masters indoor championships held at the superb new Picketts Lock Facility. Pam ran the 1500m on Saturday in 6 52.7s which was a bit faster than her time last year and easily won the women’s 70 plus title. John Batchelor had the misfortune to tweak a hamstring when leading on the first lap of his race and subsequently had to pull out after 400 metres.
    Sunday saw a fiasco of a 3000 metres when 19 runners lined comprising women and men of al l ages up to 70+ This resulted in chaos over the 200metre circuit as officials and competitors alike struggled to keep count of their laps. Luckily Pam correctly calculated her laps stopping after the 15th in 14.24.8. With many other competitors either running 14 or 16 it took over 3 hours checking the photo finish video before the results were confirmed with Pam once again the winner in the Women’s 70+ section
     
    Alex Richards competed for the Essex Schools in the Inter Counties Championship at Southampton on Saturday where he performed well to finish as 3rd Essex boy home in his age group and 16th overall.
     
    Iain Campbell returned from a week in Scotland where he competed in the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships held at the Balbardie Park of Peace, Bathgate. The race was contested over a 9.45k course and was won by Steve Cairns of Hunters Bog Trotters in 33.35. Campbell put up a sterling performance pointing out that with the introduction of 35 year olds into the race for the first time he was now competing against runners over 10 years his junior. Undeterred he battled to 12th place overall and unluckily just missed out on a medal placing 4th in the over 45’s category by a mere 4 seconds. Nevertheless the Ilford man was more than happy with his run defeating all but one of the Scottish team in the recent British international.
     
    Many young Ilford athletes were also out on Sunday competing in the Redbridge mini marathon trials held over a 3 mile course in Hainault Forest on Saturday. Conditions were more akin to cross country than a road trial with some very slippery sections around 2 laps of the lake.