Forest Five
Epping Forest
Saturday 3 August

The sixth round of the ELvIS series for 2019 was held over a 5 mile off road course in Epping Forest at Chingford.  Ilford AC fielded a team of 19 for this fixture and in form Gary Coombes headed the squad with a fine 6th place finish in 29 mins 13 secs and took home the 1st M40 trophy. He was supported by Sam Rahman in 17th with 30mins 34 secs and Steve Philcox in 30 mins 58 secs for 19th, a position which won the M50 age category. Seb Parris placed 20th with 31mins 13 secs, while Dan Holeyman came home 25th in 32mins 09 secs and Diarmuid Mac Donnell was one place back with 32 mins 15 secs. John Crawley was a further 15 secs behind in 29th and Adam Coals recorded 34 mins 46 secs in 58th.

In the team competition Ilford placed second to the home Orion Harriers squad and are joint top of the league with East London Runners.

The Ilford Ladies team was weakened by the non-availability of several of the usual scorers. Bree Nordin led the side home in 14th spot with 38 mins 09 secs and was the winner of the F60 grouping. One place behind was the improving Anna Crawley with 38 mins 09secs. Alison Sale placed 79th in the ladies race with 47mins 03 secs and Doris Gaga came home in 90th spot in 48mins 20 secs,. the team was completed by Mandeep Bassi in 106th with 50 mins 02secs and Launa Broadley with 55 mins 38 secs for 137th place. the depleted squad still managed to place 5th in the match and the club remain in second spot in the league.

Other Runners:  Dennis Briggs (87  36.45) Tony Young (115  38.59) Ray Everingham (251  48.02) Sheila Sinclair (321 56.22) Jim Huddart (339  63.48)

 

Ride 100
London
Sunday 4th August

4 Ilford athletes took part in the Prudential ride 100 event at the weekend, an unforgettable traffic free ride through London and Surrey. The event is also part of the 3 part ‘London Classics series’ with the other two being the London Marathon and swim Serpentine.

Nicola Hopkinson, Alan Pearl and Steve Parker were riding as a team of 3 raising money for their local charity ‘MIND’ in Stratford. In completing the event Nicola Hopkinson earned the ‘London Classics’ medal for completing all 3 events whilst Steve Parker having previously done the London Marathon in April claimed his second of the 3 events. Riding as a team rather than looking at times, all 3 were pleased with their efforts.

Carlie Qirem, along with her husband Tarik, both had a day to remember. Back in 2017 both had recorded times of over 8 hours, and this year after a lot of training they had set themselves a target of under 7. Expectations were smashed though, when both came home together in a time of 5:47:27, knocking almost 3 hours off of their previous time. Carlie had already earned the ‘London Classics medal’ after completing all 3 disciplines.

 

The Miles of Miles Festival 2019
Chelmsford
11th August 2019

The mile is the classic race.

Since 1976, the mile has been the only non-metric distance recognised by the IAAF for record purposes. The current male record is 3:43.13, while the female record is 4:12.56.

On Sunday Chelmsford athletic club hosted its annual ‘miles of miles’ event inviting athletes to race the mile distance on the stadium track in a series of seeded races. Three Ilford athletes took on the challenge, John Crawley and father and son pairing Danny and Ryan Holeyman.

John Crawley had never ran a mile race before so was unsure how to pace himself. Although very pleased with his 5:11 time which placed him second in his heat, John felt he could have pushed a little harder in the earlier stages of the race so looks forward to having another crack at a possible sub 5m mile in the future.

Father and Son team Danny and Ryan Holeyman always carry a little friendly rivalry in to their races, although Danny concedes that his son has the edge on him now, and so it proved on the night with Ryan winning his heat in a time of 5:24 with Danny coming in at 5:34.

 

Burnham Beeches Half Marathon and 10K
11 August 2019

The Burnham Beeches Half Marathon and 10k offers a choice of two distances, both on a mix of closed roads and hard surfaced woodland paths through the cool shade of the Burnham Beeches ancient woodland in South Bucks. It’s the perfect setting for a summer half marathon or 10k.
Two Ilford AC athletes attended the event. Julia Galea took on the Half Marathon and was pleased with her time of 2:06:41.

Meanwhile in the 10k Ray ‘Sparra’ Everingham was also pleased with his time, recording 56:59 for his second fastest ever 10k race.
In the same race Sparra’s wife Wendy, who trains with the club, also recorded her second best 10k time coming in at 1:15:33

 

SCVAC Match 4 (Southern Counties Veterans Athletic Club)
Monday 22nd July

The Men and Women’s team travelled to Hemel Hempstead to compete in the last match of the Herts and North Middlesex Vets.

The Mens team were going into the match in first place knowing that a finish 3 places behind London Heathside would guarantee representation as the league champions in the Ashford season finale on 1st September.

The Women’s team was under-represented due to availability and injuries however the Walking team of Emma Dyos and Lesley Morris finished first and second respectively in V35 and V50 in the 2000m.

Seb Parris comfortably won the V35 walk as did Steve Uttley in V50. At the same time Sam Malekout won the M35 javelin. Due to an injury he eased round the 200m for sixth.

At the same time as Seb and Sam’s first place, Henry Ricketts secured first in the V40 long jump. His V35 high jump placing was eighth and V50 200m sixth.

After a bit of a hiccup missing a V35 athlete for the 800m, Paul Grange claimed first in the V40 category. This placing was mirrored in the 200m for the same age group.

Roger Honey who had already grabbed second in the V60 long jump, was again second in the javelin and finished seventh in the 200m.

Due to the injury that Sam had picked up Pete Whiting covered the V50 high jump so that Henry could cover V35. Pete was able to secure sixth place.

Steve Philcox covering the V50 middle distances placing third in the 800m and second in the 3000m.

Gary Coombes took 5 seconds off his PB in the 3000m finishing third just 3/10ths outside 10 minutes.

David Butler covered the 800m in the V60 age group earning third place.

Seb, David and Steve Chissell also ran the 3000m as non-scorers.

The final event of the men’s schedule was the 4 x 200m relay and for all intents and purposes was a “you should have been there” moment. The team of Gary, Henry, Sam M and Paul progressed at handovers from sixth, third, third to first with an absolutely storming leg from Paul who weaved between the two athletes ahead of him to grab the relay win.

These great performances meant the team were clear by 11.5 points and had won all four matches.

The women’s team understandably finished last on the evening with only 2 events covered however finished the season sixth out of seven teams which is an admirable achievement considering the number of available athletes.

As mentioned the men’s team will go onto Ashford on 1st September to compete against 6 other teams at the SCVAC finals.

 

VAC 5000m Championship
Battersea Park Arena
Wednesday July 24 

On a sweltering night the Veterans Athletics Club (who organise events for athletes over 35 in the south and London) held their 5000m track championship in the Battersea Park Arena. There were 4 entrants from Ilford AC and one ran in each of the four races.

In heat 1 was Sam Rahman and he ran his usual well paced race to record 17 mins 20.35 secs to place 5th and win the M35 category.  Seb Parris was in the next heat and ran a good race moving through the field to come home second in 17 mins 56.50 secs, less than 3 seconds outside his personal best for the distance. This performance placed him behind Rahman in the M35 age grouping and winning him the silver medal. Tony Young gave a creditable performance in the third race placing 15th in 23 mins 07.73 secs and 8th place in the strong M50 category. Club endurance coach laced them up for heat 4 coming home in a seson’s best for the distance of 26 mins 19.88 secs for 9th spot and earned the bronze medal in the M65 group.

 

Last Friday of the Month 5km
Hyde Park
Friday July 26

Two members of Ilford AC used their lunch break at work to compete in this popular 5km over a fast Hyde Park course. Adam Coals equalled his personal best of 19mins 49secs in 91st place, while in 123rd Rohan Alexander recorded 21mins 33 secs.

 

TRACK

Samuels storms home at English Schools championships

 

ESAA English Schools’ Championships
Birmingham
13th July 2019

Ilford AC had 2 athletes compete in the prestigious English Schools athletics championships 2019, held at Birmingham. The English Schools is seen as competing at the highest level achievable at school level, as every top athlete in the Country competes and Aaron Samuels and Marion Dobrescu were the Ilford AC athletes in the Essex team  

Due to GCSEs Aaron Samuels has had to try and combine his studies with his training , which has obviously reduced the amount of time he has been able to train. Aaron decided about a month ago to compete in the 1500 steeplechase at the Essex Schools , an event he had never done before. In the Essex Championship Aaron won the race in 4.33, after falling at the waterjump, missing out on the National standard. However Essex Athletics still picked Aaron to compete in the finals. An intense few weeks of Practising jumping the hurdles  and especially the water jump, prepared Aaron for the finals in Birmingham.

Aaron, in his second ever Steeplechase race  went with the leaders in the race and there was  break away of 3 athletes with a lap to go. Aaron made his move with a lap to go and move 5 meters  clear of the field. Coming into the final waterjump, which Aaron successfully jumped, he pulled away from the field to win by a large margin. Even better for Aaron, he ran 4.20 to not only run the fastest time in the UK in 2019 by a long way, he broke the Ilford AC club record and will win his first England vest this coming weekend when he will run for England against Wales, Scotland,and Ireland

Mario was picked to run the 200m.The 200m involved a Heat, semi and Final over 2 days. Mario ran 22.07 in the heats, 22.06 in the semifinal and then ran a storming 21.90 in the final, to come a great 3rd position. He was also part of the Essex 4×100 relay which achieved a gold medal in a championship best performance.

For a club like Ilford to have 2 athletes not only compete at the English schools  but to bring home 3 medals is an amazing achievement

 

 Grange excels at InterCounties

Senior 8 Counties Inter County Match
Ashford
14th July 2019

Ilford AC had 3 athletes compete for Essex in the senior intercounty championships on Saturday.
2 of the athletes competed in the 800m, Paul Grange and Alex Richards.

Paul competed in the senior team as a V40 and amazingly won the 800 in 1.55.06, which is the 2nd fastest time by a V40 in the world in 2019. This is an amazing achievement for an athlete that has recently come over to Ilford  to train and race. Alex Richards, in the same race, is coming back from injury, but as usual ran at a very high level to finish 5th in 1.57.56
Paul’s time is also an Ilford AC V40 club record and he is currently ranked no.1 for run Britain for 2019.
Unfortunately things did not go so well for club stalwart Krystle Bolagun who’s pulled up injured in the 400m

Ilford AC finish 4th in Southern League

Southern Athletics League
Walthamstow
13th July 2019

Ilford AC sent a team to Walthamstow for the penultimate league match of the season. With a number of athletes competing at English schools, inter counties, holidays or just unavailable, Ilford athletes all performed to a high standard to come a credible 4th position. Many athletes were willing to do many events and try events they have never done before

In the Mens Sprints Ilford had Dan wheeler and Sam Malekout , who both came 3rd in 100m and 2nd in the 200m in very credible times. Dan also came 2nd in the 400m hurdles and High Jump and brought the 4 x 100 relay team home in 3rd. Sam had a busy day also , running in the 4 x 100 relay, , coming 5th in the Shot and Discus, as well as third in the javelin and high jump. Pete whiting , always reliable did the hammer, discus, shot and Triple jump to gain Ilford valuable points

Jack Halil came 3rd in the 400m hurdles, 5th in the 400 and 5th in the long jump and the other jumpers were Mungo prior and Jak Wright in the Triple jump and Long jump respectively.

In the womens sprints Krystle Balogun came 2nd in the 100m but also came 5th in the shot putt and 3rd in the discuss.
Eshimu Massamba Gemima was one of the 4 winners for Ilford on the day running 60.1 for the 400. She also came 2nd in the 100 m and competed in both 4x 100 and the mixed 4 x 400 where Ilford came 3rd and 2nd respectively

Ellie Wright ran very well in the 200 to come third in 27.5 and also did the high jump

Busiest lady of the day was Jordan Hinds, coming back after her studies. Slowly getting back to her best Jordan ran 2.28 in the 800 for third,3rd in the 1500 with 5.20 and ran in both relays . Zuzana Sinalova ran the womens 1500 to come 4th and then ran the womens 4x 100

Amie Harrison, also a busy athlete came third in the 400m hurdles, 4th in the 800m and competed in the shot, discus and high jump.Anna Crawley competed for the first time for Ilford on the track and ran very well for 5th place in a time of 21:31

Another winner on the day was Farris Patel, who ran the mens 400m. Farris ran 52.2 to win quite convincingly and ran in both relays. Mungo Prior was hoping to break 2 mins in the 800 and came very close to achieving this in a very competitive race with 2.01

Best event for Ilford of the day was the mens 1500m. This was the first race back for Ahmed Abdulle, who rejoined Ilford recently. Ahmed ran the race out on his own to run an excellent 4.01. Bradley Deacon , who seems to get better with every race ran a big PB of 4.21 to break his best by a long way and win the B string 1500

Jak Wright went off very fast in the 3000m and looked very comfortable during the whole race but just got beaten in the last lap to run a very good time of 9.40. Gary Coombes ran an outstanding 3000m to come second in 10.06 and then run his first ever steeplechase in 12.46 and win for Ilford, despite providing the comedy on the day by falling into the water on one of the jumps.

Malcolm Muir ran the A string in 11.47, winning very comfortably

John Crawley also competed for Ilford on the track for the first time coming 4th in the 800m

A great performance from all the Ilford  athletes

Ryan makes Dad Danny proud as both achieve PB’s 

Woodford Open track meeting
9th July 2019

6 ilford athletes traveled to Woodford for last Tuesdays ‘open meeting’, including father and son team Danny and Ryan Holeyman.

In the 1500m Ryan smashed his PB at the distance to finish 7th in a time of 4:40:36 to place 2nd U15..
In 9th place was Joseph Grange who finished in a time of 5:04:30 to place 2nd U13.

In the 3000m two of Ilfords U17 team members, Jak Wright and Bradley Deacon, finished in 2nd and 4th places with impressive times of 9:27:10 and 9:40:37 respectively.
2nd Senior male over the distance was Danny Holeyman who finished 13th in a time of 10:59:95, and like his son just before him achieved a new PB over the distance.

Earlier in the afternoon Bradley Brown competed in the 400m and finished in 8th place, and first V40 in a time of 1:29:58

 

 

ROAD AND CROSS COUNTRY

VAC 5km Championships
Battersea park
10th July 2019

The Veterans Athletics Club, which is a London based club that organises events for athletes over 35, 5km championship took place on a muggy night last Tuesday over a fast flat 2 lap course in the picturesque Battersea Park.
A strong line up for the race, included 6 runners from Ilford AC.
First home for the club in 6th place and winner of the gold medal for the M35 age category in 17 mins 05secs was Sam Rahman,  a few seconds off his personal best for the distance.
Also winning gold was Carlie Qirem in her first race in the masters finishing 5th female but taking the F35 title in 21 mins 45 secs.
All the remaining Ilford runners posted improved times than in recent races. Steve Philcox finished 17th in 17 mins 48 secs, Tony Young 46th with 22 mins 52 secs.
Julia Galea took the bronze medal for the F60 category in 26mins 25 secs and Rob Sargent recorded 27 mins 03secs for 58th spot

Thorndon Country Park 10k
13th July 2019

The Essex Cross Country Series takes is a 5 event 10k series that takes place annually between April – September, with one race per month. Taking place in 5 different spectacular country parks in Essex, these races offer an opportunity to get away from the road and experience trail running in the summer months.
In todays race Danny Holeyman ran a great time of 42:13 to finish 11th on the day and 3rd V40

Hexham Half Marathon
14th July 2019

Another Ilford athlete to place well at the Weekend was Tony Young, who travelled back to his native North East to compete in the Hexham Half Marathon.
The course is all on road. It runs from Hexham, through Acomb and along to Corbridge then back to Hexham. Along beautiful country roads

Tony placed a magnificent 12th on the day finishing in a time of 1:47:41

 

West Bergholt 5m
13th July 2019

Saturday saw the first running of the West Bergholt 5m race, so all runners were guaranteed a course PB!
A 5 mile race along the Colne Valley & Essex Way, taking in the beautiful countryside around West Bergholt, with some challenging hills en route.

Ilford athlete Billy Green traveled up for the race and was looking forward to meeting ‘Eddie the Eagle’ who was advertised as starting the event.
Billy was slightly disappointed though when ‘Eddie the Eagle’ turned out to be the Colchester United mascot, basically a man dressed as an Eagle, and not the former Winter Olympic Ski jumper!

Overcoming the disappointment Billy went on to run a fine race on the tough course, finishing 34th in a time of 40:44.

 

Shoreditch 10k
14th July 2019

Billy Green ran his second race of the weekend, competing in the Adidas Shoreditch 10k.
Taking place in one of London’s most creative and diverse boroughs, the Shoreditch 10K is a flat route that takes part on the closed streets around the Borough of Hackney.
In a field of 3,800 runners Billy finished in 863rd place in a time of 48:19