CHINGFORD LEAGUE

EastbrookEnd Country Park

Saturday 21 October

The second round of this winter’s Chingford League was held on Saturday over a new 2 lap twisty hilly course around the EastbrookEnd Country Park in Dagenham. 
The event attracted 285 entrants which was split into 2 divisions for both men and ladies.
Ilford AC impressed in division 2 despite only fielding small squads. 

The ladies team were in great form finishing first, second and third  and having four runners in the top ten in their division 2 match.
Gemma Ellender led the way with victory in 34 mins 12 secs for the approx 8km race with Carlie Qirem just 7 seconds behind and Joanne Reeves in 3rd with 35 mins 03 secs. Joanne was also first female in the F40 category.
Alison Sale was first  in the F50 grouping and 7th overall female in the Div 2 match in 36 mins 50 secs. Launa Broadley in  41st and Frieda Keane who was 44th completed the team .
In the match Ilford ladies finished 3rd and are currently 3rd in the second division.

The men were headed by a good run from Sam Rahman in third place and first M40 with 28 mins 06 secs.
Backing him up was Dan Holeyman in 12th with 30 min 45 secs and the in-form Joel Denning who came home in 31 min 26 secs for 17th.
Next over the line was Bradley Brown in a fine 20th in 32 mins 37 secs with Nick West, who will be tackling the New York Marathon in a couple of weeks , 39th with 36 mins 10 secs.
The evergreen Andy Catton, who was first M70, closed the scorers in 37 mins 01 secs.

Also in action were Sean Costello (52nd) Ed Skinner (59th) and Rob Sargent (62nd).
In their division 2 match the men finished 2nd and are 2nd in the league table after 2 matches.

European Masters Athletics Championships (Pescara, ITA)

Krystle Balogun represented GB & NI at the recent European Masters Athletics Championships and contested the 200m & 4x100R in the W35 category.
After bowing out of the 200m in the Heats having narrowly missed a place in the Final, Krystle was a late call-up to a relay team consisting of several international GB athletes.
Krystle ran the 3rd leg in the 4x100R and the team dominated the competition in winning the Gold medal and finishing just outside the CBP (Championships best performance).
A great ending to an indifferent outdoor season which has seen Krystle overcome several nagging injuries. She enters 2024 with the prospect of the European Indoor and World Outdoor Championships respectively to look forward to

Krystle returned to training last week and showed off her medal to her team-mates which should inspire the next generation

Centenary Celebrations

Last weekend Ilford AC hosted an in-house sports day at Cricklefields Stadium as part of our centenary celebrations.

Various events were arranged for our ever expanding youth development squad including long jump, 200m and 1500m races.

Main event of the day however was a 100 lap 400m relay event with members, across all our age groups, running a lap to commemorate our 100 years as an athletic club. 

The prestigious last lap was run by club President John Batchelor, who despite being in his 82nd year ran a very impressive sub 2 minute 400m whilst being followed round by other club members, some of whom struggled to keep pace!

During the day the club also took the opportunity of a team photograph.
 

Chicago Marathon

On a sunny cold day in Chicago two runners from Ilford AC tackled the Chicago Marathon. The course around the Windy City is fast and flat and very popular with over 40,000 runners.

This year was a special one for all competing as the World Record was broken on the day by Kelvin Kiptum from Kenya in a time of 2 hours 35 seconds.

Husband and wife team Carlie and Tarik Qirem both ran excellent races finishing together in 3:32:27, which was a Person best for Tarik by over 14 minutes.

Essex 10k Road Championships
Southend

The Essex 10k Road Championships were held this year in Southend

The course is a flat, out and back, traffic- free course along Southend seafront, also incorporating a section on the wide footpaths of Gunners Park.

Ilford AC sent 13 athletes to the Championships with great success.

Winning the race outright and first Gold medal of the morning was Jack Nixon

Jack is the nephew of club veteran Tony Nixon, who has been at the club over 50 years. He recently joined the club as second claim to compete in the Essex Championship series and marked his debut with a time of 31 mins 11 secs.
Next home was Tom Gardner, picking up a Silver medal in his age cat in a time of 32:59 for 10th place. Fabrizio Stefanoni picked up a Bronze medal in his age grouping coming home in 50th place in 36:20. Stephen Philcox continued his great season with an Essex Gold in his grouping, coming home in 64th place in 37:35. Ilfords fifth medal of a successful morning was a Silver for Andy Catton in the v70 grouping who came home in 428th place in 50:24.

Special mentions go to three of our athletes who continued their fine form with personal bests over the distance, Jordan Hinds 39:43 Joel Denning 39:59.and Tarik Qirem 47:00

Also running and putting in fine performances were:- Neil Crisp 41:12, Danny Holeyman 41:22, Steve Chissell 42:28, Joanne Reeves 45:40, Carlie Qirem 47:02, and Julie Gillender 1:11:16

Chester Marathon

Sunday 8 October

The 13th Chester Marathon was run over the usual challenging course, which runs into Wales for 6 miles on hot sunny autumn day, with a field of over 4000 starters. Ilford AC were represented by Dennis Briggs who started out on a controlled run reaching 20km (almost half way) in 94 mins 27 secs. However Dennis has been suffering from a heavy cold recently which took its toll in the stretch after 30km and Dennis came home in 3hrs 43 mins 37 secs for 962nd position, his second best time for the distance.

Royal Parks Half Marathon

This stunning central London Half Marathon, takes in some of the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens.

Ilford AC had 1 runner taking part this year,,

Batmanaden Ramen finished in 2 hrs 10 mins, beating his previous best time over the distance by 23 minutes

European Masters 10Km Road Championships

Pescara Italy

The 10km road race at the European Masters Athletics Championship was held on a hot sunny afternoon on a 2 lap twisty turning course with several hairpin turnarounds on each lap. There were three members of Ilford Ac in the British team. Julia Galea was the pick of the bunch coming 10th in the F65 age category in 65 mins 47 secs for 10th and a scoring spot on the British team earning her a silver medal in the team race for that age group. Rob Sargent had a controlled run in the heat finishing 22nd in the M65 age group in 62 mins 32 secs and Doris Gaga came home 16th in the F55 age category

Essex Cross Country Championships

 Ilford AC had a very impressive squad of 9 teams, and 27 runners, enter the prestigious Essex Cross Country Relay championships last weekend.

The teams consisted of 5 men’s veteran teams, One Senior and one Veteran ladies’ teams and 2 male junior teams.

The day started with the U15 boys with Aron Berhe, Ryder Islam and Sam Horsley finishing in 5^th place followed by our U17 boys with Aaron Hick, Samuel Crane and James Thake running well for 7^th.

The Seniors ran a 2-lap course over difficult terrain.
Kicking off for the ladies were our Senior team of Carlie Qirem, Joanne Reeves, and Jordan Hinds.

First off was Carlie Qirem in a time of 29.51 handing over to Joanne Reeves to run the two-lap course in 32.02. Completing the trio with a fast finish was Jordan Hinds in a time of 27.21 and finishing the team in a very respectable 9th position.

The V50 ladies’ team was led out by Dianne Crisp in a time of 37.50, followed by Alison Sale who finished in 32.49. Finally completing the V50 team was Mandy Reid who stepped up only a few hours earlier, to finish in 38.25 and stand the team in 4th place on the day.

Ilford’s men fielded 3 teams in the V40 Category and one each in the V50 and V60 groupings.
First off in our 3 V40 teams were Tom Gardener, Steve Crane and Seb Parris and it was Tom Gardener who set the pace for the age category running a blistering fast first leg (21.50) to finish that stage in first place handing over to the ever reliable “Mighty” Malcolm Muir who ran a very quick second leg (23.53) to hand over to Berekhet Berakhy in first place, but with two competing V40 runners close behind, to run the final leg. In his first such competition Berekhet ran a superb leg (23.34) to find himself in crossing the line in 3rd place overall with the team earning a well-deserved bronze medal.

The Bronze placed team were supported by two additional V40 teams from the club. These consisted of Seb Parris (27.05), Danny Holeyman (27.44) and Joel Denning (28.01) which earned them 15th place out of 24 teams in their age category as well as Steve Crane (28.45), Dennis Briggs (29.24) and Tarik Qirem (32.31) which left them 19th out of 24 teams.

Turning to the V50 team, these were led off by Richard Woolterton (26.55) who held position well before handed over to Fabrizio Stefani who ran a very fast second leg (24.08) and made ground on the pack before handing over to Diarmuid MacDonnell (26.14) to finish the competition for the team in fourth place only narrowly missing a bronze medal position by seconds.

Finally in the V60 competition the club were represented by three club legends – Terry Knightly (28.15) Ray Dzikowski (28.16) and Neil Crisp (26.48). All ran superbly well with Neil Crisp running a superb final leg to ensure the team rightly won the gold medal in their age category with all being able to add these County medals to their already bulging collection of past accolades and achievements.

Valentines Park 5km (ELVIS)
Ilford
Sunday 24th September

The concluding race of the 2023 ELVIS series was held on a flat fast course in Ilford’s Valentines Park.

Ilford entered 29 runners who all performed well.
Our men secured 6 of the first 12 places to claim first place on the day, finishing the table in 3^rd place over the season.
First home, in first place was Tom Gardner in 15:58, closely followed in 3^rd place by Sam Horsley in 16:32. Samuel Crane came home in 6^th place in 17:31, just in front of Berekhet Berakhy in 7th place in 17:40. Malcolm Muir came home in 10th place in 17:48 with Joshua Adler closing the first place scoring team of 6 in 18:01 for 12^th place.
Stephen Philcox, in 13^th place with a time of 18:13 claimed 1^st VM50 on the day, and Neil Crisp was also amongst the prize winners, claiming 1^st place in the M60 category in 35^th place with a time of 19:52.

Backing up the team were Aaron Hick 23^rd 19:05, Rhys Edwards 24^th 19:06, James Thake 25^th 19:08, Steve Chissell 43^rd 20:26, Tarik Qirem 60^th 21:06, Steven Horsley 66^th 21:24, Adam Coals 71^st 21:31, Gary Floate 78^th 21:47, Craig Livermore 89^th 22:27, Sean Costello 99^th 22:58 and Ramen 151^st 26@03.

Ilford’s ladies also had a very successful morning, finishing 2^nd on the day and securing 2^nd place overall for the season.

First female home, and the first female on the day was Jordan Hinds, who continues her great season with a time of 18:42 for 17^th place. Backing up Jordan in the scoring team of 6 were Carlie Qirem 63^rd 21:12 and Joanne Reeves 70^th 21:30. 4^th home for the ladies and grabbing 1^st place in FV60 placings was Breege Nordin in 98^th place with a time of 22:56. Completing the team were Leila Lauder 105^th 23:17 and Alison Sale 108^th 23:26

Backing up the team, all with good performances were Anika Sharma 125^th 24:41, Pauline Tester 149^th 25:50, Dianne Crisp 164^th 27:42 and Julia Galea 185^th 30:24.

Our combined performances also gained Ilford AC first place in the ‘mixed team category’.

At the conclusion of the Elvis series of 8 races, with best 6 scoring Ilford’s men claimed 1^st place in the M40, (Malcolm Muir), M50 (Stephen Philcox) and M60 (Neil Crisp) categories.