Chingford League
Trent Park Barnet

It was a Cold and muddy Trent Park that hosted the 3rd race in the Chingford league series  also incorporating the North London X Country championships.
U13 athletes Barney Perkins and Khalif Ali produced excellent performances finishing in first and third places respectively over the extended 3Km distance. 

In a closely contested race Barney stayed in 2nd place before producing a strong sprint finish over the last 200m to claim  his first victory in the series having finished second in his previous 2 races.
Khalif Ali ran a very strong consistent race to hold off his rivals and finish in an excellent 3rd position . Khalif has finished 3rd position in all 3 of his Chingford league races so far this season .

In the U15 race Ryder Islam rose to the challenging conditions with a great run over the longer 4Km distance and finished in ninth position overall but second in the Chingford league competition, just behind his Trent Park rival.

Just 7 Seniors competed at this week’s fixture, but all gave good accounts of themselves over the challenging muddy 2 lap 7.7k course with several short climbs on each lap.

Gemma Ellender came home 8th in the ladies division 2 match in 36 mins 44 secs and Joanne Reeves in 11th with 38 mins 03 secs .
For the men, also competing in Division 2, Ilford’s first home was Steve Chissel in 32nd place in a time of 35 mins 08 secs, closely followed by  Bradley Brown in 35th in 35 mins 48 secs with Tony Young following in 63rd place in 42 mins 49 secs.
The squad was completed by Sean Costello 71st in 45 mins 03 secs and Jim Tilbrook 77th in 53 minutes exactly 

In the division 2 fixture the Ilford ladies and men both finished 7th

London XC Championships
Parliament Hill

On an overcast afternoon, Parliament Hill, the spiritual home of Cross Country running, was the host for this year’s London Cross Country Championships.
The venue is notorious for its long hills which more often than not get very muddy, and this year was no exception.

Ilford had 6 runners however who were up for the challenge.

First off were the ladies over a 6k course.
Carlie was first home in 31m 06 seconds, followed by Alison Sale in 155th place in 32m 19 seconds.

The men ran a 10.7k course and were led home by Seb Parris in 50m 07 seconds for 239th place. Next home was Danny Holeyman in 254th place in 51m 04 seconds.
Coming in on exactly the hour mark was Bradley Brown claiming 396th place.

As if the gruelling course wasn’t hard enough, Stephen Lacey took a wrong turn and ended up running an extra Kilometre before making it back in a time of 1 Hour 8 minutes and 57 seconds. 

CHINGFORD LEAGUE
Redbridge Cycle Circuit, Hainault

The latest round of the Chingford League was a 5km road race at the Redbridge Cycle Centre at Hog Hill Hainault. It is a hilly course, and another interesting feature of the race is that it is run in the dark in the evening.

The Juniors were the first to run over a shorter 2k course and our 4 runners all performed well.
In the U11 race, Arnav Rathi was 9^th in 7:51 and in the U13 race Barney Perkins was 2^nd in 6:47, Khalif Ali 3^rd in 6:49 and Elias Furreedan 16^th in 8:37.

The U15/17 race was run over the longer 5k course and again there were good performances by our runners. Sam Horsley finished in 1^st place in 16:31, with Ryder Islam coming home in 7^th place for 18:51

The Ilford AC Senior teams, who are competing in division 2 this season, put in another good set of performances in their matches.

The Ilford ladies won their event with 4 runners in the top ten and Jordan Hinds taking victory in an excellent time of 19 mins 38 secs.
Gemma Ellender is also running well now and came in 3^rd in 21 mins 23 secs with Carlie Qirem 6^th with 22mins 04 secs. Joanne Reeves finished 10^th in 22 mins 49 secs and Alison Sale 18^th with 24mins 19 secs. Julia Galea completed the scoring team and Launa Broadley (46^th 31:41) and Frieda Keane (48^th 32:08) were also in action.

The ladies are currently 3^rd in the league table.

Ilford had 13 runners in the men’s race with Sam Rahman leading the way in 7^th spot in 18 mins 25 secs. Josh Alder had another good race as he crossed the line 5 secs behind Rahman and Dan Holeyman was 17^th in 19 mins 38 secs. Joel Denning showed improved form finishing 24^th in 20 mins 35 secs. Recent recruit to the squad Tarik Qirem came home 31^st with 21 mins 47 secs, and Steve Crane rounded out the scoring team in 32^nd and 21 mins 46 secs

In the match the men finished 3^rd and are 2^nd in the division 2 table.

Also in action were:  Steve Horsley (37^th 22:06) Craig Livermore (38^th 22:09) Steve Lacey (39^th 22:13)  Tony Young (52^nd 24:17)  Sean Costello(59^th 26:05) Batnmanader Ramen (65^th 28:16) and Rob Sargent (68^th 30:25)

STEBBING 10 (Miles)

The Stebbing 10 took place over a rolling course from the picturesque village of Stebbing on an unseasonably mild November morning and is always held on Remembrance Sunday.

The race starts just after 11 o’clock and a short Remembrance Sunday service.
Ilford AC had 3 runners on the day, with 2 achieving Personal bests over the distance.

First home for the club, with a PB was Tarik Qirem in 85^th place in 1 hr 15m 05s, closely followed 5 places later by Carlie Qirem in 1hr 15m 20s.

Completing the team with the 2^nd PB of the day was Alison Sale who came home in 161^st place in a time of 1 hr 23m 17s

Elsewhere two newer members to the club were in action over the weekend.

Nick West crossed the Atlantic to run the New York City Marathon.
He found the bridges on the course challenging and suffered from cramp in the closing stages to finish in 4hrs 30 mins 35 secs, a new best time for the distance

While Jashim Uddin ran the half marathon at the Battersea Park Festival of Running in 1 hr 40 mins 40 secs for 239^th in his first race at the distance.

 

 

ESSEX CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE

Gloucester Park, Basildon

Round 2 of the Essex League was held over a challenging course in Gloucester Park, Basildon featuring a tough series of climbs on the hills in the Park.

Ilford Ac fielded full teams in both the senior men and ladies races.

The men raced over 9km and ran the hill complex 3 times with Tom Gardner leading the way in 18th spot in a large field in 31 mins 40 secs, followed home by Malcolm Muir in 45th with 34 mins 09 secs. Josh Alder is improving race by race and finished 63rd with 35 mins 31 secs and Steve Philcox was one place behind and was the first in the M55 age category. Dylan Harrod  ran 35 mins 42 secs for 70th and Dan Holeyman completed the scorers in 125th. The Ilford team came 9th in the division 1 match and are 8th in the league.

Neil Crisp finished 4th in M60 grouping 

Also running were:  Bradley Brown (165th)  Steve Crane (197th)  Tarik Qirem (228th)  Tony Young (252nd) Sean Costello (261st ) and Rob Sargent (272nd)

The ladies event was over 7 km but still included the hills three hills. Ilford were led home by Jordan Hinds in 21st with 32 mins 44 secs with the in-form Carlie Qirem 56th with 36 mins 28 secs. Anna Crawley recorded 37 mins 19 secs in 65th and completing the scoring team was Alison Sale in 74th with 38 mins 55 secs. the team finished, like the men, 9th in the match and are currently 9th in division 1.

Other Ilford ladies in action were: Pauline Tester (105th)  Dianne Crisp (137th) and Frieda Keane (149th)

Essex XC League JUNIORS 

Ilford sent a team a 12 youngsters to the 2nd cross country match of the season in Basildon

Fist up was Arnav Rathi in the u11 race. He started strongly and held his position to come home in 19th place.

In the u13 race over 3k we had a team of 3 boys. Barney Perkins continued his recent improvement finishing in 18th place closely followed by teammate Khalif Ali in 20th only 4 seconds behind. Elias Furreedan showed grit and determination to keep running up the difficult hills when many competitors around him were walking and finished a very creditable 47th.

Ilford had a team of five boys in the U15 race over 4k the highlight of the day for the squad came with Sam Horsley’s first league win. Sam had a slow start but showed his strength to come through the field and now looks towards county and area qualification in future races. He was followed in by Aron Berhe (17th) and Ryder Islam (18th) after a great sprint finish between the two. Luke Thake (29th) and Jayden Kyle McDermott (31st) showed their improvement this season both with strong races over a difficult course.

Finally in the u17s all 3 boys struggled over 5th and 6th hill of the course on lap 3  but kept going to score in the team race. Samuel Crane was 9th, Aaron Hick 17th and James Thake 35th.

Leigh-On-Sea 10k

The Leigh-On-Sea 10k is an after dark event combined to coincide with Halloween, where participants are encouraged to wear headlights.

Over 500 runners set off from The Carpark at Leigh-On-Sea and spectators were treated to a carnival of lights and even some Halloween outfits as runners raced round two tree island country park, along Marine Parade and through Old Leigh town before heading back to the station car park for a finishing line glass of prosecco.

Representing the club this year were Billy Green and Rachel Halpin.
Billy finished 241st in 1:00:06 with Rachel just 2 places and 10 seconds later.

 

Chingford League
Dagenham

Ilfords AC had 6 youngsters competing in the Junior event at last weekend’s Chingford League match in Dagenham.

In the U11/U13 Mixed race held over a 2k course Barney Perkins finished 2nd in 6m 55s with Khalif Ali just one place and 2 seconds behind him.

Saif Crane also put in an excellent performance finishing 59th in 9m 28s

We also had 3 youngsters competing in the U15/U17 race held over 4.5k. Jayden McDermott led the way in 21st place in 18m 13s, followed by Luke Thake 23rd 18m 29s and Mya Ward 31st 24m 19s