The Vets team travelled to Lee Valley for the first of a four match series on Monday 28 April.

Solid performances all round saw the team finishing third on the evening.

Mike Horsey debuting in the new 35+ category finished sixth in 14.6s over 100m. He also competed as a non-scorer in the 1500m crossing the line in 5.06.8.

Henry Ricketts finished fourth in the 40+ category over 100m in 13.3s. He also placed fourth in the 35+ shot with 8m exactly, third in the 35+ long jump with 4m 56 and fourth in the javelin with 29m 05.

Pete Whiting competing in the 50+ sprint finished fifth with 15.1s. His long jump of 3m 52 also placed him fifth. Seventh place was secured in the shot and javelin with 7m 75 and 22m 16 respectively.

Kevin Newell covered the 400m in the 35 age group finishing sixth in 66.9s. He achieved a time of 4.50.3 in the 1500m finishing eight overall in a combined race with the 40+ age group.

Stephen Philcox ran the 40 plus long sprint finishing fourth in 63.2s. He also finished fourth overall in the 1500m in 4.44.5.

Neil Crisp ‘volunteered’ for the 50 plus 400m obtaining a time of 67.5s to finish fifth. In his preferred distance of 1500m he finished fifth overall with a time of 5.21.7 in a combined race with the 60 plus athletes.

David Butler ran the long sprint finishing second in the 60 plus category in 66.3s. A tough battle in the combined 1500m saw him finish fourth overall in 4.41.7. Dave also competed in the long jump finishing fourth.

Performances of the evening were the first places secured by the walkers Stuart Bennett and Francisco Reis in the 35+ and 50+ in the times of 10.45.2 and 9.24.5 respectively.

The 4x100m relay team of Stephen Philcox, Henry Ricketts, Mike Horsey and Kevin Newell brought the baton home in fourth.

Big thank you to Claire Levey for officiating and to some bloke in the bushes who was supporting IAC.

Report by Henry Ricketts – in third person mode.

The team move on to match 2 on 19 May again at Lee Valley

BRAINTREE 5miles

Braintree

Sunday 26 April

There were 6 athletes from Ilford AC taking part in this annual 5 mile road race on a rolling rural route at Braintree. Held over the normal out and back course conditions were dry and windy.

First in for the club was Steve Philcox in 29:01 which was good enough for 11th place and 2nd in the M40 category. Neil Crisp, making a welcome return to fitness was 27th [30:07] and 4th in the M50 group.

The Ladies were represented by Jenni Sheehan who ran well to record a new PB, breaking the 36:00 barrier with 35:59 for 112th. She was closely followed by Mel Jones showing good form in 129th [36:45], 4th FV45, and Dianne Crisp 162nd [38:16]. Pam Jones completed the quartet in 319th improving her time from last weeks run at Victoria Park [47:06]. The Ladies team were 2nd team on the day and there werte 402 finishers.

London Interclub Challenge Monday21stApril 2014 – Lee Valley Stadium

4 Ilford athletes started their outdoor season with a bang – the highlight of today truly was Mr. Amazigh Laoudi.

The young man attained a new personal best in the 800m of 2.03 and in the 400m – which he saw as average performances in his eyes.
Young Gabriel Yiadom dominated the track yet again with a PB in the 100m of 11.39 and in the 200m of 23.5s.
Nikee also achieved a personal best in the 200m of 27.43s.
Sam bravely opened up his outdoor season with a time of 11.35s in the 100m and 50.3s in the 400m, after 6 weeks off training from an unexpected hamstring injury.
Truly but surely, our young prodigees are aiming for track stardom in the upcoming county and National championships.

Gabriel Yiadom – U17 boys

200m – 23.5s (PB)
100m – 11.39s (PB)

Amazigh Laoudi – U20 men

800m – 2.03
400m – 54.17

Sam Malpass – U20 men

400m – 50.3s
100m – 11.35s

Victoria Onyeka – U23 women

200m – 27.43s

VLM London Marathon – 13th April 2014

On a perfect Sunday morning for running 16 gallant Ilford AC athletes were among the 34000 plus on the start line at Blackheath for the 34th London Marathon. The club achieved a set of fine results, which included 7 new best times for the distance, showing their winter training program went well

There was another superb performance from the club’s Kiwi runner, Blair McWhirter. Blair ran a well balanced race reaching halfway in 71 mins and moved through the field in the second half to finish in a new personal best time of 2hr 23min 27secs to place 25th overall. This result places 2nd on the marathon rankings for New Zealand for 2014 and earns position 5 on the Ilford all time list.

The next two club runners home both recorded personal best, Robin McNelis with 2h 48m 50s for 531th and Sam Rahman in 758th in 2h 53m 23s.

Kevin Newell and Kevin Wotton completed the Ilford sub 3 hours runners with solid performances of 2h 58m 02s (1140th) and 2h 59m 33s (1349th) respectively.

Recent signing Mike Horsey was another setting a personal best of 3h 3m 55s, while Tony Hyde put a creditable run of 3h 16m 37s. Paul Holloway found the going tough in the second half crossing the line in 3h 19m 08s. A couple of runners making their marathon debuts were James Roberts in 3h 23m 47s and Richard Mould with 3h 41m 22s, while Rohan Alexander improved his best time to 3h 36m 39s.

There were big personal bests from Declan Cullen, who took 45 minutes off on his way to 3h 49m 35s and Satha Alaganandasundaram just missed breaking 4 hours with 4h 02m 39s, an improvement of 41 minutes.

Bree Nordin was the only female entrant from the club finishing 20th in the F55 age grouping with 3h 41m 45s.
The Ilford squad was completed by Peter Spelman with 4m 18m 20s still finishing in the top half of the field.

Event regular Steve Allen race walked the London Marathon in a creditable 5 hours and 12 minutes, keeping diligently to an even-paced schedule. A former postman he donned a traditonal Post Office peaked cap and also raised a tidy sum for Diabetes UK.

Many Club members together with family and friends helped rehydrate the runners cheering them through the water station at the 19 mile mark in Canary Wharf which was ably run by station leader Robert Spelman.