Press Report 6th July 2021  

Jul 062021
 

Eastern Young Athletics League
Thurrock
Sunday 4th July 2021

Youngsters compete in Eastern Young athletes league

Ilford AC have not been in a position for many years to compete in the Young athletes league, due to lack of athletes, coaches and officials. However last year  Ilford approached Orion Athletic club to ask whether they would like to join up and enter a joint team. Therefore last weekend, Ilfords talented u17’s athletes were able to wear the Ilford colours in the Eastern young athletes league for the first time in decades.

First up for Ilford on the day was U15 James Thake, who was racing for Ilford for the first time. James was outstanding on the day and ran a very impressive 2.23 for 4th in the 800 against a very classy field. James powered past a few athletes down the home straight ,proving he has much more to come.
He also ran an excellent 43.6 for the 300 for 3rd.
Even more impressive was the fact that James had never done a High jump in his life and with 1 training session on the day before, he jumped 1.35 for 4th place and ran the 1st  leg of the 4 x100 to bring the team home in 4th place

Equally impressive as usual was Joseph Grange in the U15 1500. Joseph was up against the winner of the recent Essex Schools. Joseph ran a near perfect race pushing the Chelmsford boy as much as he could and even though Joseph ended up 2nd, he was much closer to his rival. Joseph ran 4.31.4,just outside his best

 In the 1500s U13s  Ryder Islam battled round to 4th place in a time of 5.52. Samuel Crane ran the U15S 1500 and once against battled round in windy conditions for 5.26.Samuel also agreed to throw the discus for points and came second with a distance of 9.96m

Aaron Hick ran the U15s 800 in 2.37 and 300 in 48.1 for 3rd and 4th  respectively and also got points for throwing the U15s Hammer

In the U17s  Ilford provide 3 athletes who all did a lot of events

Oliver Blainey ran an impressive 12.3 in the 100 and 24.6 in the 200 for 4th and 2nd  against the wind and i am sure sub 12 and sub 24 is just around the corner. He also jumped 4.86 in the Long Jump and ran the last leg of the 4 x100.His training partner Jacob Emeagi ran 13.3 and 27.0 for 5th position and 4.88 long jump and also ran in the 4x 100 relay. Finally first time competing on the track was Dieumerci Luyengi , who came 4th in the 800 in 2.17, through the shot putt 8.66 for 4th and also ran the 4 x100 relay

The team came a very credible 5th place

It was great to see our youngsters back on the track but special mention must go to our officials Ernie Forsythe and Nicola Hopkinson. We wouldn’t be able to enter teams without their support

 

 

Ware 10 mile
Sunday 4th July 2021

 

On a morning that brought both heavy downpours and bright sunshine, Julia Galea was Ilfords sole runner in the Ware 10 mile race.  It was a race she had been postponed from its original 2021 date .

The route was a closed road event, offering a couple of challenging climbs and an enjoyable section running alongside the River Lea.
Julia ran 1 hr 39m 49s and in doing so claimed 1st prize in the FV65 category and a nice trophy to add to her collection.

 

 

 

  Press Report 29th June 2021  

Jun 292021
 

Olympic Park 5km
Wednesday 23 June

Ilford AC had a good evening in the Olympic Park as the 2nd race in the 2021 ELvIS series was staged on a fast course in good conditions.

The club had 30 entrants of whom no less than 8 gained personal best times and 4 won awards.

Paul Grange continued to show fine form and won the event with a fast finish in 15 mins 40 secs. He was supported by Malcolm Muir in his first race of the year with 17 mins 47 secs for 20th spot, one place and 1 second in front of the improving Dan Holeyman whose time was a personal best. Next home was Steve Philcox taking the M50 age category in 17 mins 56 secs for 23th. Will Crossley was another turning out for the first time in 2021 in 32nd place with 18 mins 43 secs. Diarmuid Mac Donnell completed the scorers for the Ilford’s men’s team recording 18 mins 49 secs for 35th.

The team race was a close competition with Ilford placing 3rd behind East London Runners and Orion Harriers but we remain second in the league after 2 matches.

There was an impressive run for Sameena Ahmed for Ilford Ladies coming home in 2nd place in 19min 25 sec to improve her club record for the F40 category for the distance. Carlie Qirem was the next over the line in 22mins 04 secs for 18th lady with Bree Nordin 20th and 2nd in the F6 grouping in 22mins 21 secs. Mel Jones ran a creditable 22 mins 51 secs in 20th with Alison Sale 33th female in a new personal best of 23 mins 34 secs. One second behind and closing the scoring team was Gaye Young in 34th spot.

Like the men’s match the team event was closely contested with East London and Orion with Ilford placing 3rd and are 2nd in the league

Terry Knightly put in a good run to win the M60 age group and place 61st overall in 19mins 53 secs.

There were personal bests times for Dennis Briggs (20.31) Wayne Hick (21.09)  Tony Young (21.37)  and Pramila Monro (27.37)

Also running were: Adam Coals (20.31  72nd)  Steve Chissell (20.48  87)  Phil Davies (20.49  88)  Andy Catton (22.23  128)  Rob Sargent (25.25  242) Sharon Honey (26.01  257)  Bradley Brown  (26.54  275   )  Mandy Reid (27.55  292)  Carol Muir  (28.07  308) Frieda Keane (29.02 314)  Launa Broadley (30.39  339)  Karen St John-Kufour (33.47  358)  Sheila Sinclair  (33.48  359)

Track Open Meeting
Mayesbrook
26th June 2021

Several  Ilford athletes made the short journey  to Mayesbrook to compete in an open meeting on Saturday.  After all the recent rain it was good to have a dry and almost wind free day.

First up in the 100m was  Efe Adjarho who  followed up a great run in the southern league last week with a season’s best time of  13.25 seconds, which  is only 1/tenth of a second outside of her lifetime best.  The 100m were then given a second race an hour later, and Efe continued to show fine form, producing  13.28 with her second run. 

Krystle Balogun ran in heat 4 of the 200m and produced a great run  to take 4th place in a personal best time of 26.15, beating the pb that she set back in 2019. 

Three Ilford athletes took part in the 1500m, first up was Ryder Islam, who was running his very first track 1500m. After a steady start he worked his way through the field and by the finish he was in an excellent 4th in a time of 5.30.89. 

Jordan Hinds and Samuel Crane were in the next heat, both made positive starts and were well up in the field early on, both maintained a good pace over the next few laps and eventually finished 5th and 7th. Jordan’s time was  5.05.40, her second fastest ever 1500. Whilst samuel knocked 33 seconds off his pb with a great time of 5.07.14 

  Ilford AC Press Report 22nd June 2021  

Jun 222021
 

TRACK

 

Southern league
Saturday 20th June

Ilford AC returned to competing in the Southern league for the first time for 2 years at the weekend and all our athletes performed admirably.
Even though Ilford had a small team compared to other clubs, there were many outstanding performances and the club finished a very promising 4th

 

Our women  sprinters started the day well with Aleena Lawrence and Efe Adjarifo running 13.4 and 13.5 respectively in the 100m.
In the Women’s 200m Krsytle Balogun, who always runs well, ran a very good 26.61 and it’s great to see Ellie Wright back on the track, not only coming second but running a pb of 26.7.
In the 400 and 800m both  Gemima Eshimu Massamba and Jordan Hinds did this very tough combination. Gemima ran 61.23 and also 2m.27 for the 800. Jordan came 3rd in the 400 in 64.9 and was strong in the 800 to come through in a season’s best of 2m.24.

Sameena Ahmed ran her first ever race on the track for Ilford on Sunday in the 3000m  and was absolutely outstanding in a superb time of 11m.25, coming second. Hopefully this is only the start of her track career

 

In the Men’s side , starting with the sprints, Adulhakin Mohamed  ran a very fast 11.25 in the 100m for third, but Elijah Mayindu looked super quick and won convincingly in 11.04.
In the 200m  Fidunu Abidekun, who was looking for a fast time to get into the English schools,looked so strong and quick and powered home  first with  22.18.  Abdulhakin came third with 23.43.
Fidunu also found time to come second with a very impressive jump of 1.90 in the high jump

These 3 athletes and u17 athlete Oliver Blainey came together for the 4 x 100 to storm home in 43.74, beating some very fast teams and only a second away from the club record. With a bit of baton training this record could be beaten

Moving onto the 400 and middle distance, Ilford were super dominant. Oliver ran his first ever 400 to come second in 54.56, with much more to come and new athlete to Ilford  Dylan Harrod, ran outstandingly for a pb of 55.1 and came first in the B string. In the 800 Dylan ran a pb of 2m.02 to come second and Alex Richards just got beat on the line with a time of 1m.58

In the 1500 Paul Grange and his son Jak Wright bossed the race from the very start . Paul got away in the last lap to run an outstanding 3m.58 and Jak just missed out on his PB with a 4.04. Once again so much more to come from these 2

In the 5000 Veteran Tom Gardner and youngster Bradley Deacon pushed away in the 5000. The race was very close for the first 3000 but Tom showed his experience to run a very decent time of 15.39 and first and even though Brad struggled in the last few laps he still did a pb of 16.23. John Crawley also ran 18.47 in the 5000.

Rhys Edwards also making his debut for Ilford in the southern league once again showed his versatility to run a pb in the 2000 in 6.41 and finished 2nd

Fabrizio Stefanoni competed in the 400m at ran well for 61.2

Ilford are also lucky to have a number of field athletes who between them are able to compete in every one of the field events and without these guys we would not get the amount of points we get in every match

Sam Malekout , who most years earns the most points in the league did the Long jump, Triple jump, Pole vault,Discus,Javelin and Shot Putt and once again competed to a very high standard. His 39 metres javelin was probably his best performance.
Also U20 athlete George Marshall Child, competing in events he had never done before deserves a massive congratulations for competing so well. George did the Long jump, Triple jump, discus, Javelin and High Jump. His best performance  was the High jump of 1.45 with much more to come in future fixtures. Also debuting in Shot putt and Hammer was u20 Jeevakan Sivayogan .

Veterans Roger Honey and Peter Whiting also did the Hammer and Pole vault respectively to enable us to compete in all the field events

 Last race of the day was the 4 x400. Even though the Ilford team was not made up of a 400 specialist, the team powered home to victory in an excellent time of 3.31. Once again congratulations to Dylan,Alex, Jak and Paul for outstanding runs

 The performances and team togetherness was great to see and every Ilford athlete competing got cheered home every time. Well done Ilford

 

 Woodford Open Meeting

 A number of Ilford youngsters turned up at Woodford last week and the majority continued to achieve PBs

 Oliver Blainey, Jacob Emeagi and Lucas Emeagi were all placed in the same 200m . All 3 achieved PBs  with Oliver winning  in  24.4. Jacob ran 25.9 and his younger brother Lucas 26.4. Outstanding runs from these 3 youngsters

In the 800m Ronan Edwards ran a pb of 2.18 and Aaron Hick broke 2.30 for the first time in a new pb of 2.26.Samuel Yusuf Crane also ran well for 2.36

Once again showing his versatility was Rhys Edwards running 100 in 12.5 and 200 in 25.3

Last up was veteran Fabrizio Stefanoni who ran well for 2.16

 

ROAD

 

Victoria Park 10k
Sunday 20th June

 

Terry Knightley of Ilford AC travelled into the heart of London’s East End on Sunday for the Victoria Park 10K Road Race.

The course consisted of a socially distanced start and 3 laps of the park on traffic free Roads/Paths.

Unfortunately, the race did not go as planned, as Terry started the race with a blinding headache and feeling extremely weak on the aforementioned start line.

Nevertheless he decided to tough it out and race as best he could and finish the race albeit slower than anticipated in.

Final results showed he came 31st overall out of 91 athletes in 41m 40s and was 2nd Male Veteran Over 60.

 

All finishers received a quality commemorative medal – Terry went home to bed to recover !

  Press Report 15th June 2021  

Jun 152021
 

VAC 5km
Battersea Park
Tuesday 8 June

The second VAC promoted 5km of the summer was held last week on a warm but muggy night. Four runners from Ilford AC travelled to the park to race over the fast flat 2 lap course.

First home for the club was Tony Young, who is currently showing good form, in 43rd spot in 22 mins 07 secs, with Alison Sale producing results showing that she trained well earlier in the year during lockdown recording 23mins 47 secs in 54th  and 5th in the F55 grouping.
Ilford endurance coach Rob Sargent laced them up and came home 62nd and 4th in the M65 age category with 25 mins 35 secs. Ernie Forsyth raced for the first time in two years after breaking his shoulder and despite the injury still causing him a few problems finished in 28 mins 43 secs for 70th and 5th in the M65 age group.

Two race walkers also represented the club on the night in the 5k Race Walk. Stuart Bennett put in a seasons best performance to finish in 4th place and first V60 on the night in a time of 32:07, whilst Lesley Morris was just one second outside her PB finishing in 7th place and second V60 female in a time of 34:12.

Sri Chinmoy 5K
Battersea Park
7th and 14th Jun 21

Sameena Ahmed was the sole Ilford representative in the Sri Chinmoy 5k held at Battersea Park last Monday. 

Sameena ran an excellent time of 19:39 which placed her 4th lady finisher on the night. 
This time was the fastest ever by an Ilford lady over 40, beating the previous record by over a minute, and the 13th fastest ever by an Ilford lady over the distance.

Competing this week, and also Ilfords sole representative was Anna Crawley.
On what was the hottest day of the year Anna produced a fantastic performance to record a personal best over the distance in a time of 20:50

 

 

TRACK NEWS

 

A couple of record breaking runs for Ilford Athletes last week. On Sunday, running as higher claim Athlete for Chelmsford, Paul Grange ran a pb and club Vet record over 800m of 1.53.20. Not only a club vet record, but the 8th fastest ever by an Ilford athlete and the 4th fastest ever 800m run by a uk male over 40. 

 

Jak Wright racing over 800m at a BMC meeting last Wednesday  at Wormwood scrubs, not only won the race, but broke 2 mins for for the first time, in a time of 1.59.64

 

A few of the younger athletes competed in the Essex schools at Chelmsford on Saturday, Joseph Grange ran for Havering in the junior boys 1500m, he ran a very good tactical race and just got caught when the vital break was made with 400m to go. He finished a very good 4th in a pb time of 4.29. 

 

Also running in the junior boys category, over 800m was Lucas Emeagi, more used to run in lanes over shorter sprints, he ran almost the whole of the first lap in lanes before breaking just before the bell. Regardless of this he produced a great performance for 4th place in a time around 2.23. 

In the BMC Grand Prix 5000m at Watford, Ahmed Abdulle ran in the B race putting in another excellent performance taking 28 seconds of his previous 5000m pb for a time of 14:21:36 

  Press Report 7th June 2021  

Jun 072021
 

Conquer 24, Powderham Castle

3 Ilford athletes experienced success in the inaugural Conquer24 endurance race at Powderham Castle near Exeter.
Aaron Browne, Craig Livermore and Diarmuid Mac Donnell from Ilford AC were part of a team of 7 local runners taking part in the mixed team relay over 24 hours 
The race lap was just under 5 miles of mostly undulating trails with spectacular scenery. Camping facilities and catering were on the castle grounds.
Going down with no real expectations, the team found themselves among the leaders going into the night. Strong running overnight saw them take the lead which they managed to hold on to till the end, running approximately 163 miles (33 laps) in just over 24 hours.
The Ilford men were joined by Alexandra Rutishauser and Jacob Stevens from ELR as well as Nils Hollman and Lee Duggan from Dagenham 88 who was running on a broken toe!
The event was very well organised and attracted a large number of teams competing in various categories.
It should grow into a popular fixture over the next couple of years.

 

 

 

Dagenham ELvIS  5 miles
Central Park Dagenham
Wednesday 2 June

 

The first round of the 2021 ELvIS series was held over a mixed terrain 2  lap course around Central Park and the Fels Field area of the Eastbrook End Country Park. Ilford AC fielded a team 31 runners and, who showed that training over the lockdown year has gone well. The team enjoyed a very successful evening, with4 runners beating their best times on a road course: Gary Coombes, Dan Holeyman, Gaye Yong and Alison Sale.

Paul Grange was in good form winning the race outright in 27 mins 28 secs, with Coombes third just 20 seconds behind. Holeyman came home 15 in 30mins 13secs, with Steve Philcox one place back in 30 mins 24 secs winning the 1st M50 age category trophy.John Crawley recorded 32mins 05 secs for 30th while Terry Knightley closed the scoring team in 34th taking the M60age group honours in 32 mins 32 secs. The club finished second in the team contest behind East London

Sameena Ahmed won the ladies race to complete a double for Ilford in 33 mins 39 secs and there was a good performance from Anna Crawley in4th spot in 35 mins 12 secs. Bree Nordin took the F60 category prize with 37 mins 39 secs finishing 9th lady on the night. Carlie Qirem placed 11th in 37mins 55 secs with Gaye Young recording 39mins 17 secs for 17th.Alison Sale kept up her recent good form in 23rd spot as she closed the teams scorers in 40 mins 18 secs. The ladies won the match in a close contest with East London y 2 points.

The rest of the team were: (overall position \time)    Diarmuid Mac donnell ( 45  33.32)  Phil Davies (53  34.51)  Craig Livermore (59  34.57)  Dennis Briggs ( 60  34.57)Adam Coals (62  34.59)  Steve Crane ( 69  35.28)  Tony Young (125  39.33)  Rob Sargent (159  42.45)  Bradley Brown (177  44.1)  Sharon Honey (185  44.59)  Julia Galea (197  46.1)  Pramilla Munro (204  46.1)  Nicola Chester (222  48.46) Mandy Reid (230  50.35)  Frieda Keane (231  50.35) Launa Broadley (240  52.18)  Ray Everingham (245  53.33)  Karen St Jean-Kufor (251  58.02)  Wendy Everingham (240  63.40)

Report by the Man in the Bushes