Southern Mens League

 Ilford Athletic Club men's team were pipped to victory by a rampant Bournemouth team at the first Southern League fixture of 2007 held at Cricklefield Stadium on Saturday. The narrow defeat wasn't enough to spoil what had been an outstanding display by the young squad with 10 individual victories, 7 personal bests and the finest display of relay running in years.
Star of the team was 15 year old Mo Swamad who lopped 10 seconds off his best to record 4.23.2 in the 1500m.  The mature display of controlled running belied his years, as he went through the first lap just off the leaders in 68 seconds and maintained his form with two more laps of even running.  His lightening quick and determined finish just narrowly failed to overhaul the leading 'B string' runner from Bournemouth, but this did not spoil a joyous display of his burgeoning talents.
The sprinters were dominant with Aaron Balogun, Gary Smallman, Marvin Tuffor, Erik Obot and Salim Patel getting maximum points in both strings of the 100m and 200m as well as the short relay.  Aaron seems to have put the many months of injury last year behind him, gradually raising his performances to national standards and his double victory in the 100m and 200m (11.1 and 22.1 respectively) blew the opposition away.  Marvin Tuffor also put 20m between him and the opposition with a 22.7 200m, while Gary was pushed hard to the line in 11.3 in the 100m.  Victory in the 4x100m looked like a formality as long as they got the baton round, which they duly did in 44.2.

Malcolm Muir put the disappointment of his marathon behind him and showed his true form and ability with a controlled 5000m / steeplechase double (15.53.1 / 10.22.8 respectively).  Malcolm was pushed in the early stages of both races, but his stamina and speed was too great for his opponents as he finished with healthy leads in both races to record a personal best in the chase and a best for many years in the 5000.  Muir's colleague in the 5000, Darren Bottrill smashed his personal best by over a minute to break the 18 minute barrier for the first time and put himself up into a new class of distance running.  Like Swamad, the secret of his performance was a controlled pace, which dipped only slightly in the 4th kilometre, but picked up in the last lap with an electric last 200m of 33 seconds.

Simeon Stuart is another of the young talented stable of athletes beginning to find his feet, with an excellent personal best in the long jump of 6.33m. While delighted with his performance, he considers it a stepping stone to reaching the national qualification standard of 6.80m, which he is well on his way to achieving.  Simeon's high jump of 1.75m was also an excellent performance, which might have been higher if it wasn't for an earlier sprint in the 100m.  Not to be outdone, multi eventer Sam Malekout lept to a personal best of 6.13m to finish first in the 'B string'.  Nathaniel Senior
continues to impress in the triple jump and broke the 13 metre mark for the first time with 13.04m, rewarding much hard work in his speed and technique training, while Elijah Collins was a little under form with 1.65m in the high jump.

Stars of the throwing events were Sam Malekout, Sol Anwar and Craig Burrow. Sam completed a busy day with an outstanding 5m improvement in his javelin best to record 45.22m.  Sol has not been able to train to his optimum recently, but still managed an outstanding shot putt of 13.70m  Craig was also in excellent form, recording 39.50m in the discus.

Rob Nixon's return to running after much injury is also very welcome and he controlled the middle distance races with excellent pace judgement and awesome finishes to record 2.03.3 and 4.16.6 in the 800 / 1500m respectively.  Gary Madigan also ran well to record 53.7 in the 400m. By the time it got to the 4x400m, the squad had left itself too much to do, but excelled itself with the first sub 3.30 time for many years (3.29.9).

With Bournemouth being one of the strongest squads in division 2, Ilford are hoping to repeat their performances and convert them to victories in the coming months.  The final scores were Bournemouth 139, Ilford 133, Navy 94,

Other performances were:- Sam Malekout: 400m-53.5s, PV-2.40m; Bakr Al-Akku: 800m-2.15.6; Pete Whiting: 110mH-29.7s, 400mH-79.2s, PV-1.10m; Craig Burrow: 110mH-25.4s, SP-11.50m, HT-29.08m, JT-38.98m; Mo Swamad: 400mH-68.0; Matt Maple: chase-10.56.5; Gary Smallman: TJ-12.42m; Sol Anwar: DT-35.37m; Wes Clarke: HT-40.63m; Marvin Tuffor: 100m(ns)-11.3s; Erik Obot: 100m(ns)-11.6s; Gary Madigan: 100m(ns)-11.9s; Salim Patel: 100m(ns)-12.1s; Simeon Stuart: 100m(ns)-12.1s; Nathaniel Senior: 100m(ns)-12.8s, LJ(ns)-5.70m   

Essex Track and Field Championships – Day 1 Cricklefields 7^th May – Report by Paul Cheal

 Bank Holiday Monday saw the Day 1 of the Essex AAA’s Track & Field championships return to Ilford Athletic Club. Unfortunately the weather was very blustery with frequent showers that somewhat dampened proceedings for everyone until late in the day when it brightened up. Ilford AC were represented by 13 athletes on the day.  

In the Boys U/13 1500m both George Hadler and Ciaran Rodway found the competition and going tough. George came home in: 6m 45.9s and Ciaran was: 5m 55s. Alex Richards ran the U/15 Boys 1500m and probably went of too fast and came home with a time just outside his PB with: 4m 59s but missed out on the final unfortunately. Both Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake & Jerrell Alleyne took part in the U/15 Boys 200m. Nethaneel finished in his heat with a PB of: 26.0s and Jerrell like nethaneel also qualified for the semis with a time of: 26.2s. In the semi final's Nethaneel nearly equalled his PB set in the heats with: 26.1s and Jerrell bettered his time to: 25.9s but both missed out on the final.

 Simeon Stuart ran the U/17 Boys 200 and came home 3rd with a time of: 24.9s. It was good enough for him to qualify for the semis but due to him not feeling well declined to advance. Aimee Jones U/15 Girl, Laura Townsend, Lydia Hall & Sarah Kigozi U/17 Women also competed in the 200m. Aimee finished in a time of: 29.8s but did not progress any further. Laura ran 29.3s and Lydia produced a PB run of: 29.1s but again did not make it any further. However Sarah finished 3rd in her heat with: 27.7s and qualified as a faster loser. In the semi-final Sarah was not able to produce the same time coming home in: 28.4s and not making the final. 

In the field events Andrew Townsend did very well in the U/15 Boys Discus finishing 4th with a PB of over 2m's with: 20m 88cm. Chris Dawe U/17 Men and Charlie Clements U/17 Women threw the Discus & Javelin at a time when the heavens decided to come down. Chris seemed to struggle slightly with the gripping on the discus and his best throw of: 26m 29cm was below what he was throwing in practice and he finished 5th. Charlie also threw below bar with: 24m 72cm and also finished 5th. 

Overall there were some good performances and some that were affected by the inclement weather but Ilford athletes  can pick themselves up now and go on to the next competition as they  head towards Chelmsford for Day 2 & 3 next Saturday & Sunday. 

Ted Pepper 10k

Prolific road racer Terry Knightley was also back in action on Monday but was far from happy with his run in the Ted Pepper 10K Road Race Incorporating The Southern Counties Veterans Athletic Club 10K Championships.

Knightley started well enough occupying 4th place in a field of 150 starters, a position which he still held after the first of the three laps. However the damp conditions led to both of his calves tightening up after 2 miles with terrible cramp which made running very difficult thereby forcing him to slow down. Nevertheless he gritted it out to cross the finish line in 11th Place in 37 Minutes and 34 seconds to win the first Veteran (MV45) prize in Open Race and the Gold Medal for The Southern Counties Veterans (MV45).

 Next home for Ilford AC was Nicola Hopkinson in 75th Place in 46 Minutes and 5 seconds to win Gold SCVAC Medal in the Female Veteran (FV40) category. The evergreen Pam Jones was next in 109th Place to win Gold SCVAC in the Female Veteran (FV70) Category and Pam also won the Female Veterans (FV65) gold medal.