Ilford AC's athletes were in action in round 3 of the Essex Cross Country League at Hylands Park Chelmsford on Saturday. Leading the way was the Club's talented under 13 star Thomas King who continues to improve with his best showing in the league so far. King showed great determination as he battled to an excellent 13th position out of 43 finishers in the boys race. Coincidentally this was the same position he achieved in the  London Cross Country Championships held at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, last week when accompanied by his buddy George Hadler (21st) the pair flew the flag for the junior section of the Club with some distinction.

The women's race produced some good packing by the Ilford squad especially in the middle order allowing them to close 8th out of 18 competing teams. Bree Nordin led the troops home in 26th from Lindsey Barker 35th, another excellent run from Dianne Crisp in 38th and Victoria Morgan completing the scorers in 58th. Sally Gillam and Pam Jones provided some excellent back up placing 60th and 72nd respectively out of a field of 92.

Liam Leddy and Omar Rashid competed in the Under 17s which went off with the women, with Leddy coming home in 20th to Rashid's 24th.

The men were without their top man Malcolm Muir who was competing in the Norwich half marathon the following day but nevertheless put up a good show with 10 runners toeing the start line and Peter Clinch returning to some excellent form. Clinch went out hard and although slightly tiring on the second of the larger loops managed to hold things together to finish 39th and first Ilford man home.

 

 

He was hotly pursued by a fast finishing Darren Bottrill in 42nd with veterans Neil Crisp 63rd, Andy Catton 74th and Abdi Berleen running strongly behind. Matt Maple in 93rd closed the team to 9th place out of 22.Other Ilford positions were Ben Jones 100th, John Mackenzie 135th, Henry Ricketts 143rd and Steve Port making his debut in 175th.
On Sunday the in-form Malcolm Muir produced his 3rd best ever time when finishing 6th in the Norwich Hallf Marathon. The Ilford man admitted afterward that he may have gone off a bit too quickly at the start going through 5 miles in 26.30 and 10 in 54.23. He confessed to being a bit one paced after that and his training partner Paul Molyneux of Springfield Striders caught and passed him at mile 6 taking a minute out of him by the end. Nevertheless Muir was more than happy with his finishing time of 71.47 which was only 9 seconds off his PB. The race was won in a very fast time of 65.43 by Bedford and County's Mathew Janes with Colchester Harriers' Adrian Mussett nearly 3 minutes behind in second.