South of England Cross Country Relay Championship
Wormwood Scrubs
Saturday 22nd October 2022

Ilford AC Battle Back After Disaster at Relay Championships

Ilford AC runners put on a heroic fight back after suffering disaster at the start of a major championship race.
The four man team were genuine medal contenders when they lined up for the senior men’s South of England Cross Country Relay Championship on Saturday.
Current Essex Cross Country Relay Champions, Paul Grange, Tom Gardner, Alex Richards and Ahmed Abdulle, had their sights set on a top three position when lining up at the start of the fast, flat course in Wormwood Scrubs, West London.
But they were soon on the back foot after first leg runner, Paul Grange, lost five minutes to the leaders after being part of a small group which was sent off course – adding a mile onto what should have been a 2.5 mile lap. 

Grange had settled comfortably at the rear of half a dozen runners which had just lost contact with three leaders. But as they reached half distance, the lead runner of this group mistook a turn, taking the pack off course and back to where they had come. By the time the mistake was noticed and they re-joined the correct loop, too much time was lost.
Grange clocked a time of 17:39 and handed over to second leg Gardner – in 29th place.
Facing a monumental battle to claw back as much time against the best runners from across the south of England, the team set about a stunning comeback, picking off as many places as possible.
Gardner passed 13 competitors while lapping the course in 12:48, handing over to Alex Richards who blasted past another six runners, clocking a blistering 12.24.

Despite the insurmountable gap, last leg athlete Abdulle unleashed one of the fastest splits of the entire competition, pulling back two more places, on his way to a 11.30 lap.
He brought the team home in 54:21 for seventh place out of 36 teams, 6:21 behind winners Windsor and Hounslow AC, who clocked 48.07. Chiltern Harriers AC came second in 40:18, followed by the host club, Thames Valley Harriers, in 48:41.

Had it not been for the mishap on leg one, the team’s time would have put them firmly in the battle for bronze. 

Team captain Gardner said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the performances – everyone showed fantastic determination despite a major setback.
“While a lot of other teams might have let their head drop facing such a mammoth task, the team got stuck in and fought for every position.

It’s a shame we lost so much time because of the confusion on the first leg, where a section of course wasn’t clearly marked out and a small second group went the wrong way. But sport’s all about how you deal with adversity and Ilford AC showed how we do it.”

CHINGFORD LEAGUE 5km
Olympic Velopark
Wednesday 12 October

The second fixture of the season in the Chingford League took place under the lights at the Olympic Velopark road circuit in Stratford. Ilford compete in the second tier of this competition and produced a good result in the match

In their division two match the Ilford ladies were led by a strong run from Joanne Reeves who came home second, and first in the F40 category, in 20 mins 13 secs.
Hannah Sheikh is improving all the time and finished 7th and 3rd in the F40 group with 22 mins 47 secs, just 4 seconds off her personal best and Alison Sale who recorded 23 mins 21 secs for 10th and 1st in the F50 age category.
Pauline Tester produced a creditable run in 20th with 25 mins 38 secs. Launa Broadley finished in  29th spot in 29 mins 31secs, an improvement of over 4 minutes from her time in the corresponding fixture last year.
In the match the Ilford squad finished 2nd.

The first finisher for the men was Richard Woolterton in 14th with 19 mins 29 secs and 2nd in the M50 age group, while there was a good result from Joel Denning in 18th spot in 19 mins 4 secs.
Newcomer to the team Sean Costello recorded 23 mins 56 secs for 45th with Bradley Brown two places back in 24 mins 15 secs. Jim Tilbrook placed 59th with 26 mins 47 secs. Ray Everingham came home 61 st in 28 mins 11 secs and Ramen was one place further back with 28 mins 32 secs.
In the match Ilford finished in 6th spot

CHICAGO MARATHON
Sunday 9 October

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 Diarmuid Mac Donnell went through half way in 1 hr 34 mins 54 secs and pushed on to finish 4232th in a field of over 40000 in 3 hrs 16 mins 25 secs.
Steve Lacey recorded 1 hr 59 mins 42 secs at the halfway stage. Steve found the last 10 miles challenging but still managed to finish in 4 hrs 25 mins 50 secs,  a 13 minute improvement on his last run at the distance.

The Richmond Park Half Marathon is a tough hilly trail race, but does offer a lovely panoramic view of London en route and the chance to run through one of London’s most scenic parks and witness its famous Deer.
Two Ilford runners took part in this year’s event and both achieved first place in their respective age categories.
Joel Denning finished 8th in a time of 1 hr 36 mins 16 secs to grab 1st place in the Male V40 category, whilst Joanne Reeves achieved first place in the female V40 category finishing in 12th place overall with a time 1 hr 38 mins 32 seconds. Joanne was also the 3rd lady to finish overall

Tiptree 10 (10 Miles)
9th October 2022

The Tiptree 10 has been awarded ‘the best road race in the Essex AA area’ as voted by running clubs 3 times since 2008 and offers a beautiful scenic course through the Essex village

This year the ever reliable Frieda Keane headed up an Ilford team of one, but did the club proud over the undulating course with a time of 1 Hr 38 mins 04 seconds for 283rd place

Royal Parks Half Marathon
Sunday 9th October

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 2 runners taking part this year, both putting in fine performances.
Batmanaden Ramen finished in 2 hrs 33 mins and Karen Kufour in 2 hrs  58 mins.

Run the River 10k
Lee Valley
9th October 2022

Starting and finishing at Lee Valley Athletics Centre, running along the River Lee, the ‘Run The River 10k’ is a popular picturesque race.
Competing just a week after the London Marathon Ilfords Julia Galea produced a great performance to win the FV60 category and 131st overall in a time of 59 Mins 41 seconds.

Essex Cross Country Relays Champs
Brentwood
Saturday 24th September

On a very hilly course in Weald Park the Ilford team excelled themselves.
Starting with two vets on legs 1&2 Ilford got off to a flying start with Paul Grange on leg 1 coming in with the leading group in 22:24 over the 6k course.
Leg 2 saw Tom Gardner take a slight lead in 22:19. With Havering chasing leg 3 Alex Richards. who’s recovering from his injuries, slipped back to 2nd place in 22:46.
With Havering now in the lead, leg 4 saw Ahmed Abdulle storm around the course passing Havering to bring home the victory for Ilford AC  in 20:08 whilst also achieving the fastest lap time of the day with a overall time of 1 hr 27 min 38 secs

South of England Athletics Association (SEAA) Relays
Crystal Palace
Saturday 24th September

Ilford AC entered a V40 team at the SEAA road relays at Crystal Palace this weekend with 4 runners taking on the challenging 6k course consisting of a notoriously unforgiving sharp hill that had to be negotiated twice.

Fabrizio Stefanoni set out on Lap 1, handing over to Diarmuid MacDonnell and then Sam Rahman. Last to take the baton was the gutsy Malcolm Muir. Whilst the team were always in contention they were unlucky to miss out on a medal place, coming in 5th place against some very strong opposition

Great Bristol 10k
Saturday 24th September

The Great Bristol 10k this year incorporated the Home Nations Championships with the best runners from all four Home Nations being selected by their countries to compete.
Ilford AC were very proud when our own Terry Knightley was selected to represent England for a second time. Terry did the club, and England, proud coming home in 40:07 which was the 6th fastest V60 time of the day and helped England to Victory

Valentines Park 5km (ELVIS)
Ilford
Sunday 25th September

The concluding race of the 2022 ELVIS series was held on a flat fast course in Ilford’s Valentines park. 

Ilford entered 25 runners who all performed well.

In the ladies race the winner was Ilfords Neringa Masilioniene, making it 4 wins in 4 races, in 20th overall in a time of 18.39. Third lady home was Jordan Hinds in 30th overall in 19:26. Sameena Ahmed came in 35th and picked up the 1st FV40 trophy in a time of 19:39 followed by Joanne Reeves 64th in 21:10. Next home for the club was Breege Nordin who picked up the 1st FV60 trophy in a time of 22:30 in 81st place. 6th home for the club, and completing the unusually large scoring team of 6 for an Elvis race was Mel Jones in 92nd place in 22:48.

There were personal bests on the day for Alison Sale in 98th place in 23 minutes exactly and a third personal best in 3 weeks for Launa Broadley in 199th place in 28:58.

The ladies team were second on the day and second in the series, missing out on top spot by just one point over 8 races.

Backing up the ladies team were Hannah Sheikh 99th 23:06, Gaye Young 104th 23:33, Mandy Reid 140th 25:21, Jenni Sheehan 161st 26:19, Diane Crisp 171st 27:32 Frieda Keane 200th 29:07 and Carol Muir 202nd 29:14

In the men’s race Stephen Philcox was first home, achieving 1st VM50 with his 17th placing in 17:53. Richard Woolterton continues to impress in his first season for the club coming in 26th place in 19:10, closely followed by Craig Livermore 36th 19:41 and a new personal best over the distance for Stephen Crane in 19:48 for 37th place. Coming in at 59th place in 20:45 was Steve Chissell before Andrew Catton closed the team of six in 97th place for 22:58.

The men finished 3rd on the day and third in the 8 match series.

Backing up the men’s team were Sean Costello with a new personal best of 23:24 for 102nd, Bradley Brown 103rd 23:32, Ramen 165th 26:43 and Ray ‘Sparra’ Everingham 186th 28:10