Press Report 5th May 2008

 

Ilford AC misses the point

Ilford’s senior men fought hard to record second place in the first Southern Mens League match at Erith last Saturday, frustratingly missing victory by one solitary point.  With several top athletes missing through injury and others making their senior debut, the team performance was always going to be difficult to predict and so it proved with all five teams vying for the lead throughout the match.

Ilford star of the match was the redoubtable Sam Malekout who recorded an excellent victory in the 400 metres with a new personal best of 51.0 seconds, a classy distance of 40.95m in the javelin and a good 30.67 metre in the discus.  Also performing well was Rob Nixon who is finding his best form again with a front running victory in the half mile in 1:58.7 and an excellent win in the quarter mile of 53.4.

Ilford comfortably outperformed their rivals in the field events, with Wesley Clarke reaching his best performance for several years in the hammer, with 43.83 metres.  Craig Burrow also relived former years with a distance of 42.52 metres in the javelin, a distance he hasn’t reached in competition for several years and performed well in the shot with 12.37 metres, hammer, 35.34 metres and discus, 36.97 metres.  John Hadler made up the throwing team with 9.52 metres in the shot.

Ilford’s jumpers were also on good form. Nathaniel Senior suggested he had more to come after coming second in the triple jump with a good distance of 13.07 metres and 6.19 metres in the long jump for first.  Simeon Stuart also felt confident about the coming season with a decent performance of 6.21 metres in the long jump and 1.65 metres, both for third, while Osi Nzeako outdid himself with an unexpected win in the triple jump with 11.68 metres and 1.65 metres in the high jump.

Ilford’s debutants all performed outstandingly despite their junior years.  After many years trying to find a stable 400 metre hurdles pair, Michael Wong and Evan Reza both looked like experienced masters at the event with times of 69.8 and 73.2 seconds respectively, while Liam Leddy avoided an overly quick start to come through strongly at the end of the 1500 metres with a new personal best by almost 20 seconds of 4:55.9.  Ali Javi-Gauoui demonstrated great potential but has to gain race pacing experience as he chased the quick early pace to record a respectable double of 2:23.6 and 4:59.8 in the 800 and 1500 metres.

The long distance guys, Darren Bottrill and Iain Macdonald performed well against the punishing programme, with Darren Bottrill running with great guile to record a new personal best in the 5000 metres of 17:26.2.  His performance was made especially difficult by being left to lead the race from lap five with only the talented Andrew Donno from Brighton tracking his every move.  With a lap and a half to go, Donno took off, leaving Darren to finish strongly for his barrier breaking performance.  Iain ran a shrewd tactical race for 18:41.6, dropping the pace at half way when points were secure, so that he could save energy for his steeplechase, which he ran with great technique but no little tiredness in 11.36.0.

The talented sprint squad of Gary Madigan, Antoine Green and O’Real McAllister were in fine form, with Gary recording an excellent personal best of 23.0 seconds in the 200 metres and 11.6 seconds in the 100 metres while O’Real recorded 23.6 in the 200 metres.  Antoine was desperately unlucky in his 100 metres to pull up with a severe hamstring injury with metres to go, losing by less than a tenth of a second in 11.9.  With Antoine gone, Osi Nzeako joined the 4x100 metre squad of Gary, O’Real and Simeon Stuart to place second place with 46.0 seconds, which would have been quicker but for a shaky second changeover.

With only a few points dividing the top four teams prior to the final event, there was everything to play for in the 4x400 metres.  Rob Nixon (55.4) led off well in touch with the leaders but by the end of the second leg, young Jacob Ansong (59.6) was several vital metres behind the match leaders, Brighton & Hove AC.  Osi Nzeako (55.8) fought well to close the gap, and with the superlative Malekout (51.2) on the final leg, it was no surprise as Ilford closed strongly to take the vital second spot coming into the final straight ahead of Brighton to take the lead in the match.  However, the effort had taken it out of Sam as Brighton came back to retake second place, demoting Ilford to second place in the match by a tantalising point.

Final positions were Brighton 115, Ilford 114, Ryston 107, Bexley 104 and Watford 94.  Although desperately disappointed to miss out on the victory, the squad is determined to overcome gaps in the squad and come back strongly for the next match at Mile End on 17th May.

 

On Bank Holiday Monday Ilford's prolific racer Pam Jones competed in the Ted Pepper 10k at Beckenham where she easily won the first female 65 award cruising round the course in 53mins 56 seconds. 

 

CHAMBERS & JOSEPH SPRINT TO GLORY

Ilford AC came away with a handful of medals on Day 1 of the Essex Track & Field Championships at Thurrock had .

 

In the U/13 Girls Tamara Chambers and Ashley Joseph powered their way through the 150m heats. Tamara came home 1st in her heat with a time of: 21.12sec and Ashley was not far behind in the same heat with 21.75sec. In the final it was a very close affair with Tamara just coming home in first for GOLD whilst Ashley was not far behind with a superb BRONZE. Tamara also did the 70m hurdles and was impressive as well in the heats with a PB of 12.52sec in  1st place qualifying for the final. In the final which was not long after the 150m Tamara came home slightly tired in a time of 12.97sec for 5th. In the U/17 Women  Lydia Hall was using the 200m as a warm-up for next weekends 300m hurdles and although meeting tough opposition was able to record a PB with  27.44sec and 5th in the heat which unfortunately did not get her to the final.

 

In the U/13 Boys 200m Jordan Akisanya started to show his class with a fine performance coming home 2nd in his heat with a PB of 27.07sec. In the final he again impressed but was just pipped to the line taking th SILVER medal with 27.19sec. In the Long Jump Jordan lead at the halfway mark with a jump of  4m 41cm and although was overtaken by two athletes was still very pleased with a distance of  4m 52cm just 1cm behind second place for a deserved BRONZE. Thomas King took part in the U/13 Boys 1500m and unfortunately got pushed at the start of the event in a very keen and competitive straight final. He was still able to finish the race and come home in a time of  5m 32.76sec for 8th. Youcef Zatat continues with his impressive start to the year when he did the U/15 Boys discus and although slightly below par was still able to throw  36m 68cm for 1st and GOLD by nearly 5 metres. In the U/17 Men 3 athletes did the discus. Rob Legon who is improving all the time as his technique is getting better recorded a PB to finish in 5th with  28m 77cm, Chris Dawe still finding it hard going this year but was still able to finish 6th with 27m 55cm and Andrew Townsend in his 1st year of U/17 finished in 9th with  21m 59cm.

 

Next stop for the Ilford AC youngsters will be Days 2 & 3 of Essex Championships at Basildon on Saturday and Sunday 10th & 11th May