Friday Night Five
Pleshey
Friday 11 July
After missing a year in 2013 the “Springfield Striders Friday 5” was back last Friday. Situated in the village of Pleshey, the race was held over a two lap spectator friendly course, starting and finishing at the village hall. A small contingent athletes made their way and were rewarded for their efforts.
Malcolm Muir, in a fine vein of form, won the race in 26:10 [not far off a PB!!]. He was followed by Kevin Newell in 8th [28:33 a new PB]. Just behind was Sam Rahman in 11th [29:19.]. Neil Crisp in 22nd [31:22] was the 1st Vet 50. The evergreen Pam Jones was 120th [47:28] which was good enough for the V70 prize. Best part of the evening by far was the free burger and homemade cakes!!
Essex Veterans League
Lee Valley
Wednesday 2 July
A few members of Ilford AC took advantage of this match to have a run on the track. The 1500m was the most popular event with Kevin Wotton best of the bunch recording 4 mins 50.3 secs, with Kevin Newell close behind with 4m 51.3s. Rob Sargent clocked 6m 17.5 while Carol Muir, in her first ever track race, finished in 7m 04.1s.
Kevin Newell went on to win the 3000m in 10m 29.9s, while Sargent had a run out in the 1 lap 400m coming home in 82.2s.
Woodford Green Open Meet
Ashton Playing Fields
Tuesday 8 July
There was a good turn out for Ilford in this meeting. The evening kicked off with 2 under 13 athletes recording personal best times in the 800m; Arun Manget (2m 43.26) and Bradley Deacon (2m 45.83s), while Jack Maher was close to the 2 minute barrier once again with 2m 02.05. The seniors racing at this distance were led by Sam Rahman with 2m 15.71s, with Kevin Newell finishing in 2m 24.40s, and Krystle Balogun 2m 27.08s.
There were six Ilford athletes in the 3000m with Tom Gardner winning in 8m 53.32s. Malcom Muir had a good run out with 9m 28.36s. There was a personal best of 9m 25.16s for 15 year old Ahmed Abdulle and Usamah Patel recorded 9m 40.16. Kevin Newell ran a seasons best of 10m 05.56 and Sam Rahman came home in 10m 21.87s
This week’s Grapevine
Elsewhere there were some excellent performances in the Capital with Steve Philcox placing 8th in the Sri Chinmoy Transcendence 10k held at Battersea Park last Saturday. Steve eclipsed his previous best for the distance by 24 seconds which now stands at 35.15. Another smashing his personal best was Billy Green running in the mass event London 10k who went 85 seconds quicker than before with 48.38.
Last weekend Ilford’s Tony Hyde made the trip to the popular Bewl 15 in Kent where he recorded a chip time of 1.53.05 in a field of nearly 700 runners.
The club now look forward to this Wednesday evening when they host the 4th race in the excellent 7th race Elvis series, the Newman Hilly 5 at Chigwell Row. The race starts at 7.30pm and entries on the day will be taken up to 7.15pm.