Ilford AC's Iain Campbell suffered a mishap on leg 2 of the Essex Cross Country Relays on Sunday morning effectively putting pay to a makeshift squad's outside chance of medal success. On a delightfully picturesque but extremely challenging hilly course measured exactly as 4.739K with panoramic views over Hadleigh Downs and the Thames estuary near Southend, club captain Malcolm Muir got the Ilford 5 man team off to a rousing start  coming home in 5th place and putting  the lads in good contention.

It was Campbell who set off in hot pursuit on leg 2 but unfortunately put his foot down a pothole when chasing down a Basildon runner, bringing him to an abrupt halt with a badly pulled hamstring. Campbell was forced to walk the last mile to the handover point as Peter Clinch sped away in an attempt to pick up the lost places. Clinch back from a long layoff ran an enterprising leg of 18.39 before handing over to youngster Iain Macdonald who obviously enjoyed his run clocking 19.51 and making up 3 places with most of the pressure now off.  Neil Crisp, head of a 3 strong family representation on the day,  took up the cause on the 5th and final leg and with a time of 91.42 closed  the club home in a heroic though naturally disappointing 18th place. The "B" team were unfortunately short of 2 runners but nevertheless contested the first 3 legs with some relish. Steve Cheal set about his task with his customary enthusiasm coming home in 23.39. Martin Clarke returning from a bothersome hamstring injury that has kept him out of action for over a year made up 1 place with 23.35 to hand over to Matt Maple who ran conservatively nursing a long term foot injury but nevertheless still returned a decent time of 21.53. With Chelmsford secure in Gold medal position the race produced an exciting finale with 5 teams closely contesting the silver medal as Adrian Mussett led a successful charge through the field for Colchester Harriers just pipping Southend AC in third. 

 

The women's section of the club far exceeded their expectations in the accompanying ladies event  where the A string quartet  all had very strong runs to bring the club home in an excellent 8th place. Bree Nordin led off with 21.46 before handing over to a strong looking Sally Gillam 24.42. Keelie Brooks returned to the fold with a pleasing 25.05 and Dianne Crisp closed with 23.58. The B string ladies also came through well with both Mel Jones and Nicola Hopkinson nursing achilles injuries, not recommended for the tough hills that had to be  negotiated. Nevertheless they both finished unscathed with times of 25.12 and 26.33 respectively although Jones did go slightly off course on the largest of the hills. Youngster Jenny Crisp had bit of a baptism of fire on the traditionally very fast leg one clocking 26.49 but was nevertheless able to smile through her dislike of the course afterwards. At the other end of the age spectrum septuagenarian Pam Jones returned a very good time of 27.10.    

Pam had already excelled the previous day by winning her age category title in the annual Vets AC championships held over a very muddy and hilly distance of 5.8 miles at Wimbledon. She ran 49.52s and managed to stay ahead of arch rival and good friend Brian Shave 2nd M70 on the day who had outsprinted her on a previous outing at the BMAF in Mansfield. Eila Mansfield was 2nd W70 a minute or so behind.

 

Back on the roads Abdi Berleen was competing in the Fred Hughes 10 mile race in Hertfordshire  where he broke the tape in a time of 67.55 after successfully navigating the pavements, country roads and The Alban Way to the North East of St. Albans.