Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 2 March 2014  

Mar 032014
 

Netherhall 10m, Incorporating the British Masters Athletic Federation 10
mile Championships

Netherall

Sunday 22 February

Two Ilford men made the long, tiring journey to Cumbria to compete in the
above race. It is a tough, windy and hilly course. The winner of the race
was V40 runner Kerry Wilson from Scotland, in 55.17. Malcolm Muir came home
as the first Ilford runner, but third overall in a time of 56.21. Malcolm
was pleased to win the BMAF V35 gold!

Spencer Hempstead competed bravely despite suffering a tummy bug. He came
11th in the race, in a time of 59.47. He was an unlucky fourth placed V40 in
the BMAF competition.

Report by Malcolm Muir

Last Friday in the Month Serpentine 5k

Friday 28 February

Continuing his recent good form John Batchelor competed in last Fridays
Serpentine 5k. He finished 82nd out of 215 runners in 20:51, which bettered
his January mark by 12 seconds and in the process scored the second best
age-related percentage of 88.0%. Next weekend he hopes to compete in both
the 1500m and 3000m at the BMAF Indoor Championships.

Report by John Batchelor

Ilford AC 10 Mile Cross Country Championship

Hainault Forest

Saturday 1 March

Seventeen runners lined up for this years Ilford AC 10 mile cross-country
championship, which included a few guest competitors. The course was three
laps of a gruelling muddy route of arond 3 1/3 miles a lap.

Tom Gardner made light of the conditions to win in an excellent time of
63mins 43secs. Next home was Steve Philcox with 68m 48s with Steve parketr
winning the prize for 1st in the M50 category with 85m 19s. Bree Nordin
again showed good form to take the ladies title in 85m 33s and Mel Jones
finished 3rd female in 94m 10s. Nicola Hopkinson won the F45 grouping in 95m
53s.

Junior athletes ran obne lap of the course with Usamah Patel winning in 22m
42 from Jack Maher with 23m 37s.

Report by Hank in the Bushes

Half marathons

Sunday 2 March

There were two excellent performances from Ilford AC athletes in half
marathon events at the weekend

New Zealander Blair McWhirter, who is currently working in Essex, took part
in the Reading Half Marathon. This event attracts a number of the top road
runners in England and was won by Olympic marathon runner Scott Overall in
64mins 44secs. Blair, who comes from Christchurch, put in his best
performance for several years to finish 26th with 68m 33s, which ranks him
2nd in his country’s half marathon rankings for 2014 and 10th on the Ilford
all time list.

There was a classy field for the Bath half marathon with a couple of Kenyans
in the line -up. Malcolm Muir also put in his best showing for a number of
years finishing 19th in 71m 07s on the hilly course.

Report by Hank in the Bushes

  Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 23 February 2014  

Feb 242014
 

TARPLEY 20

Bury St Edmunds

Sunday 22 February

Ilford AC’s Breege Nordin put in a outstanding performance in the Tarpley 20
mile road race on a rural hilly course over the windy countryside
surrounding the Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds. Breege finished in 84th
overall in 2hr 31min 22secs, this run placed her as 3rd female in the event
and first in the F55 age category. She is ranked 28th overall in the country
in 2014 at the distance and is top of her age group.

The club also had 3 men in action. Sam Rahman ran a controlled race to
finish 17th in 2h 09m 42s, while Kevin Newell recorded 2h 15m 42s. The squad
was completed by Bradley Brown with 2h 38m 19s.

Report by Hank in the Bushes

Photos courtesy of Ralph Nordin

CHINGFORD LEAGUE

Victoria Park

Saturday 15 February

The last round of this winter’s Chingford League was held on the fast, flat,
traffic-free roads on Victoria Park in Hackney on a blustery afternoon. The
race was over a two course totalling 8km and there were six endurance
athletes from Ilford AC running as guests.

Best for the club on the day was Sam Rahman finishing 29th in a large field
of 210 runners in 29 minutes exactly (spooky!).Next home was Kieran McKenna
in a creditable 31m 43s for 71st, while Rob Sargent was satisfied with 36m
27s in 147th spot. Jenni Sheehan put in an excellent run to finish as 20th
female with 35m 29s. Husband and wife team of Neil and Dianne Crisp returned
to action following injury and illness respectively to recorded 35m 30s and
39m 07s.

Report by Hank in the Bushes

Photos courtesy of Gasen (Sam left and Rob)

SOUTH OF ENGLAND MASTERS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP

(Incorporating the Veterans AC Championship)

Lee Valley

Sunday 16 February

There was medal success for Ilford AC at the South of England Masters indoor
Championship at the Lee Valley Athletics centre last Sunday with all of
their runners featuring on the podium. The meeting incorporated the
Championships of Veterans AC, the London based club which organises
competitions for masters athletes.

In the M70 category it was double success for John Batchelor in the 1500m
where he finished 1st in 5m 36.61s to take double gold. Steve Philcox ran
the 3000m in the M45 group finishing 3rd in the Southern Championship in an
indoor personal best time of 9m 45.90s which earned bronze in the South of
England and silver in the VAC event. Kevin Newell ran the same distance and
recorded 10m 37.96s for 3rd in the M35 class taking the Southern bronze and
a VAC silver.

Report by Warrior Dog

INDOOR MIDDLE DISTANCE EVENING

Lee Valley

Wednesday 19 February

The last indoor event of the season for the endurance squad of Ilford AC was
a series of 800m and 1500m races at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre on
Wednesday evening.

In the 800m there was fast running for the younger members of the club. In
heat 2 Jack Maher recorded 2m 03.50secs for 2nd place, while Usamah Patel
was 2nd in heat 5 in 2m 07.75s. Both athletes are in the U17 age category.

There were 5 runners from the club in the 1500m. Best of these was Steve
Philcox with 4m 35.21s, a indoor personal best, in 6th spot in heat 2. In
the same race Sam Rahman akso improved his best time for the distance on the
boards with 4m 40.10s. Kevin Newell was in heat 3 and finished with 4m
51.50s and Krystle Balogun was timed at 5m 14.03s in heat 4. In heat 5
Kieran McKenna made his first appearance in a track race for the club and
make a winning start to take the race in 4m 58.86s

Report by Warrior Dog

Essex & Eastern Counties Indoor Championships

Lee Valley – 8th & 9th February 2014.

Word document attached courtesy of Jeffery Nkrumah

EAMA Inter-Area Indoors

Lee Valley – 23rd February

John Batchelor continued his fine indoor season this weekend. He placed 1st
M70 in both 800m (2:42.66) and 3000m (11:58.24) running for SCVAC in the
Indoor Inter-Area meet at Lea Valley today. He won the 800m by 12 seconds
and the 3000m by 50 seconds, and both times were faster than his
performances at this meeting last year.

Report by John Batchelor

doc icon Essex-Indoors.docx

  Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 16 February 2014  

Feb 162014
 

EASTERN COUNTIES INCORPORATING THE ESSEX INDOOR ATHLETICS CHAMPS 2014

For the first time this season Jack Maher [No. 420] & training partner
Usamah Patel [No. 522] came face to face in the finals of the u/17 1500m.
Jack took up the pace early on as the pair took charge of the race, with
about 250m to go Usamah made his move to take the title from Jack who was
the reining champion both athletes broke the championship best performance
time. Usamah time 4-21 Pb indoors Jack 4-25 Pb indoors

Report by Ian Gains.

Photos by Tom Gardner

CHICHESTER PRIORY 10km

CHICHESTER

SUNDAY 9th FEB

Three Ilford men travelled down to Chichester last Sunday for the super fast
Chichester 10km, which includes the Sussex Championship. On a windy course
the times were a little down on previous years with the winner’s time being
30.23 by Phillip Wylie and the 1st lady being GB runner Charlotte Purdue in
33.37.

1st Ilford man home was Malcolm Muir, in 18th position in an excellent time
of 32.38- not bad for someone pushing 40! Next Ilford man was Spencer
Hempstead in 42nd position in a time of 34.12. Spencer was 2nd V40 only 19
seconds behind the V40 winner. Final Ilford man was Matt Woodman, in 45th
position in a time of 34.32.

There were 1500 runners and Ilford team finished 5th in the team
competition.

Report by Malcolm Mur

 

  Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 9 February 2014  

Feb 102014
 

Essex Cross-Country League

Epping Forest

Saturday 8 February

The final leg of this winters Essex Cross-Country League has held in Epping
Forest , where the recent poor weather turned the course into a quagmire of
liquid mud. The adverse conditions led to the organisers shortening the
courses for the races.

Ilford AC were again fielding weakened teams due to injury, illness and a
busy weekend of races and their line up for the senior ladies 6.5km event
was just 2 competitors. Jenni Sheehan put in a good run in the mud to come
home 28th in 30 mins 05 secs and Nicola Hopkinson again showed a battling
performance to finish 35th in 31m 47s. Together they combined to finish 12th
team on the day.

The mens race was over 7.8km and Ilford had a team of 5 for this event. Best
on the day was Steve Philcox with a creditable 39th spot in 30m 43s, with
Kevin Newell in 61st with 34m 41s and Bradley Brown 73th in 35m 03s. Chris
Togwell came home 81st despite a fall with 35m 46s and Steve Cheal finish in
40m 49s for 121st. The team came 11th in this match.

[shashin type=”album” id=”126″ size=”small” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”y” order=”date” position=”left”]

Over the season the Ilford men finished 10th in the 20 team league and the
ladies 9th. Individually Bree Nordin won the F55 category and Dianne Crisp
and Nicola Hopkinson finished 5th and 6th respectively in the F45 group. On
the mens side, Kevin Newell finished 18th in the senior mens rankings,
Bradley Brown 16th in the M40 group and Steve Cheal 12th in the M50
category.

Report by Hank in a muddy puddle

Great Bentley Half Marathon

Sunday 9 February

There were a series of good performances for Ilford AC at the Great Bentley
half marathon held on a rural, fast but windy course. Recent recruit to the
club New Zealander Blair McWhirter was in excellent form finishing in second
overall in 71mins 26secs. Paul Hollowy improved his best time for the
distance to 82m 41s as he came home 36th and 6th in the M45 category. Bree
Nordin finished 203rd overall with 1hr 37m 47s and was just pipped to the
F55 prize by 16 seconds. Declan Cullen and Satha Alaganandasundaran both
recorded personal bests of 1h 42m 11s (269th) and 1h 51m 56s (433rd)
respectively, while Steve Parker finished 321st in 1h 45m 02s on his return
from injury. Nicola Chester also recorded a new best time of 2h 01m 50s in
579th spot. There were 748 finishers.

Report by Hank back in the Bushes

Eastern Counties Indoor Championships (incorporating the Essex Championship)

Lee Valley

Sunday 9 February

The indoor championship for the East of England region was held at the Lee
Valley indoor arena and incorporated the Essex Championships. Krtsyle
Balogun represented Ilford Ac in the senior womens 800m. There were six
competitors in the final and Krystle was up with the leading group at 400m
reched in71 secs. The race speeded up in the last 200m and Krystle sprinted
hard around the last bend to finish 3rd in a new personal best of 2m 24.1s.
Her placing meant she was awarded the bronze medal in both the Eastern and
Essex championships.

Report by Warrior Dog

Above picture of Krystle Balogun with Ilford’s ‘Warriors of Time’ endurance
squad coach Rob Sargent

 

 

  Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 2 February 2014  

Feb 042014
 

Watford Half Marathon

Sunday 2 February

It was a bright sunny Sunday morning in Watford, something that has been a
rarity recently. Due to the Deluge of rain we’ve had recently this made the
course a little tougher due to the fact sections of the course were flooded.
1750 runners lined up at two separate starts of male and female of the
annual Watford half Marathon. Ilford Ac had 4 representatives in the large
field,. 1st home for Ilford was Blair Mcwhirter in an excellent time of
72.02 which was good enough for 6th place, then came kevin Newell in 65th in
81.25, Bradley Brown in 186th in a good time of 88.40, then came Ilfords
only female representative, Racjhel Allen, in 1305th in an excellent time of
2.01.46

Report courtesy of The Cowboy in the Vicarage

Serpentine, Last Friday in the Month 5k

Friday 31 January

Spencer Hempstead finished a very fine 5th out of 219 runners, and 1st M40,
in 16:29. Spencer’s age-related score was 84.7% John Batchelor placed 96th,
in 21:03, a sluggish but satisfactory run, scoring 87.2% (best male score),
largely due to the fact that I passed another birthday (73rd) a week
earlier. Conditions were cold and breezy, but luckily the rain held off for
the race.

Report courtesy of John Batchelor

Ashford and District 10k

Sunday 2 February

Held over an undulating scenic course in the Kent countryside, new recruit
to the Ilford fold, Matt Woodman, shot off the blocks at breakneck speed and
came home in 33.47 for 3rd place . Ben Jones went off a little too hard in
the first 2 miles and paid the price, never really regaining a steady
rhythm. He stumbled over the line of the revised out and back course in
37.33 for 30th place.

Report by Ben Jones

Ryde 10m

Sunday 2 February

Mike Horsey made the journey to the Isle of Wight for the Ryde 10 and
completed the undulating, aka hilly course in 69:00 for 98th position.

Report by Michael Horsey

LONDON GAMES INDOORS LEE VALLEY U/15 U/17 GRADED MEETING

Lee valley 2 February

Jack Maher, 16, in the top seeded race over 800 controlled this race from
the start running out a comfortable winner in a new indoor Pb of 2-01. His
training partner Usamah Patel 15 had to take on one of the top u/17 1500
athletes but still put up a good performance for 2nd place in a new indoor
Pb of 4-22

Report by Ian Gains

London Indoor Games

Lee valley 25 January

The London Indoor Games were held on the 200m bowl at the Lee Valley
Athletic Centre and Krystle Balogun of Ilford AC continued to show good
winter form. Running in heat 3 of the Senior Women’s 800m Krystle was
running in the leading group throughout and put in a storming last 100m to
take 2nd place in 2mins 24.94secs, just 0.02 seconds off the winner

Report by Warrior Dog