All News Items
London Marathon
Sunday 26 April
There were 8 runners from Ilford AC among the 37500 plus on the Greenwich start on an overcast chilly morning. Fastest from the club was Malcolm Muir who put in a tremendous race to smash the Club veteran Marathon record when finishing 143rd overall in a time of 2hrs 35mins 23secs, which also improved his best time for the distance by 3 seconds! This placed him as 16th master in the M40 category. Sam Rahman also set a new personal best of 2h 52m 54s despite finding the going tough in the last few miles. Close behind was Robin McNelis with 2h 53m 21s, while Kevin Wotton, who had his preparation interrupted by injury, recorded a good ...Read more
Press Report
A small group of Ilford AC athletes made an appearance at the Woodford Green Open meeting during the week with many of the younger athletes competing for their first time on the track. Opening the account was 12 year old Chloe Chapman 3rd in the 100m in 15-74 & 32-1 for the 200m. Isabella Hick 13 & Ellie Wright 12 both ran Pbs in the 800 with Isabella 1st 2-48-12 and Ellie 2nd 2-49-74. Both athletes then competed in the sprints with Isabella recording 31-18in the 200 and Ellie 15-25 in the 100m. . Bradley ...Read more
Ilford AC’s run of the weekend came from Paul Holloway who continues to steadily crack all his personal bests. Sunday saw him on the South coast where he was among 9000 plus runners tackling the popular Brighton marathon. The Ilford man set off at a sensible pace running conservatively and reaching 10k in 41mins 34 seconds before keeping steady for the remainder of the race as it wound around the city to the finish on the seafront. Holloway was well pleased as he crossed the line in 2hrs 58 mins and 9 seconds, the first time he had cracked the magical 3 hour barrier which placed him high up the field in 75th position.
Further afield Peter Spelman competed in the ...Read more
Wight Three Hills Race
Monday 6th April
Isle of Wight
Ilford AC’s men’s captain Malcolm Muir enjoyed his customary Easter break in the Isle of Wight where he won the West Wight Three hills race on Easter Monday for the third time. This race consists of an undulating/hilly very scenic single lap of 8 miles (unofficially measured with an accurate metre wheel) with approximately 900 feet of ascent taking in Golden Hill Fort, Freshwater, Headon Warren, Alum Bay, Highdown, Tennyson Down, Freshwater Bay and back to the finish at Freshwater. The Ilford man crossed the line in a time of 46.48 over a minute clear of Andy Weir of Thames Hare and Hound. There were 136 finishe rs in total.
Folkestone 10
Friday 3rd ...Read more
Essex Road Relays 28th March 2015
Harwich
Strong coastal winds gusting across Dovercourt Bay greeted over 170 runners representing 53 teams from the cream of the county’s running clubs as they contested the Essex Relay Championships last Saturday. The event held at Chelmsford for many years was switched to Harwich this year in an enterprising move by the host Club Harwich Runners to present a fast accurately measured 5k course along the seafront with the innovation of chip timing. For the first time in Essex Road Running’s history runners transported a baton around the course which contained the chip technology. With the stiff wind behind they were assisted along the promenade for the first 2k until the turnaround when they had ...Read more
Brentwood Half Marathon
Sunday 22 March 2015
There was another good team performance from Ilford Ac in the Brentwood Half Marathon last Sunday.
Malcolm Muir led the way for the team in second spot, losing out to Ryan Prout of the Thrift Green Club by just 3 seconds, in 71 mins 32secs, which placed him as top M40 runner. There were big improvements in personal bests from Sam Rahman, 22nd in 1h 18m 54s, and Paul Holloway, 27th in 1h 20m 07s. Robin McNelis backed them up well in 33rd with 1h 21m 33s. Peter Spelman was further down the field finishing in 2h 00m 52s
In the Women’s race Bree Nordin produced her usual strong run to finish 303rd in 1.37.13.
7 ...Read more
British Masters Cross-Country Championship
Ruthin, North Wales
Saturday 14 March
Four runners from Ilford AC travelled to North Wales to compete at the British Masters Cross-Country Championship at Ruthin in North wales. The race was over a 4 lap 8.8km course on mainly parkland but boggy in a few places. First Ilford man home was Andy Catton in 89th sot in 36m 19s which earned him 9th in the M60 category. Steve Parker was next home for the club in 135th with 43m 06s for 31st in his category while Steve Cheal finished 35th in the M50 grouping in 44m 51s and 139th overall. One pace behind him was Rob Sargent with 47m 06s and 31st in the M60 category. The Ilford team ...Read more
InterCounties Cross Country Championships
Cofton Park Birmingham
Saturday 7th March 2015
Ilford AC had 2 athletes representing Essex in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships held at Cofton Park Birmingham last Saturday in what was arguably the strongest strength-in-depth event of the UK season.
Malcolm Muir competed over 12k in the senior men’s race where he placed 190th out of 283 finishers in a race won by Andrew Buchart of Scotland East clocking 34.26.
Ahmed Abdulle was still carryinga niggle but acquitted himself well in the Under 17’s race held over 6k coming home in 40th out of 274 in a time of 20.43. Mahamed Mahamed of Hampshire won in 18.35.
Sidcup 10 miles
Sunday 8 March
There was a good turnout for the Sidcup 10 road race ...Read more
Bath Half Marathon
Sunday 1st March
Illford AC’s brother and sister act, Malcolm and Carol Muir, travelled to the West Country last weekend to compete in Sunday’s Bath Half Marathon. Running a well judged even pace of 5.30 per mile Muir crossed the line in an excellent 22nd place in a very high class field.He was well pleased with his time of 72.08 which gave him 2nd place in the vet40 category only losing out to the classy Christopher Greenwood of Kent AC who finished some 2 and a half minutes ahead.
The winner was Paul Martelletti of Run Fast clocking 65.27 to record his 4th major half marathon win this year already! Yet the most outstanding run of the day came from ...Read more
Press Report 24th February 2015
English National Cross-country Championship Parliament Hill Hampstead Saturday 21 February The English National Cross-country Championships returned to Parliament Hill, Hampstead last weekend after a gap of 3 years. This course is considered to be the toughest in the country and was harder than usual this year due too heavy rain during the preceding week turning much of the course into a quagmire . First up were the junior races where two ever present u/17 Ilford athletes,Ahmed Abdulle and Usamah Patel took on the mud and the hills. Both lads found the going tough with Ahmed coming home with a creditable 37th place and Usamah in 231st . Tom Gardner headed the challenge in the senior mens’ 12km race with a fine run placing 211th in ...Read more