Barking Park 5km
Monday 26 August

The annual Barking Park 5km took place on a flat, fast course on a hot sunny Bank Holiday morning and it was a good day for the 38 entrants from Ilford AC.
The race was the 7th match in the ELvIS series and left the positions tight at the top.

There was a fine run from Paul Grange to lead the club home in the runners up spot in a new personal best time of  16 mins 08 secs. Supporting him were Tom Gardner in 5th in 16 mins 34 secs and Gary Coombes with 9th in a new best time of 17 mins 02 secs. Close behind in 11th was Sam Rahman with 17 mins 22 secs, his best time for 3 years. Paul Holloway came home 16th with 17 mins 34 secs, to win the M50 age grouping,  and Malcolm Muir closed the team with 17 mins 45 secs for 18th spot.
Ilford won the ELvIS match from Orion Harriers in 2nd and East London in third.
This result puts the club top of the men’s table for the summer with one match remaining.

Also in the top 20 were James Rigby with a personal best of 17 mins 43 secs and under 20 category runner Phil Ellul  with 17 mins 51 secs.
Seb Parris recorded 18 mins 13 secs in 28th, with Steve Philcox 31st in 18mins 33 secs and Diarmuid Mac Donnell recording 18 mins 40 secs in 34th.

Leading The Ilford ladies was Neringa Masiolionene who is the clubs 5th Olympian and only double Olympian representing Lithuania in the 2012 London & 2106 Rio Games, in the Women’s 20 Kilometres’ Walk. Neringa was making her running debut for the club, finishing a fine 4th in 19 mins 23 secs.
Next home was Anna Crawley with 21 mins 16secs in 11th and one place behind Carlie Qirem in 21 mins 31 secs who scored a personal best..
Bree Nordin once again took the F60 category trophy placing 17th with 22mins 19 secs.
Completing the scoring team was Nicola Hopkinson in 33rd recording 24 mins 35secs and Alison Sale in 210th place for 26 mins 13 seconds.
The team placed fourth in the match behind Eton Manor, Orion Harriers and East London runners. With one round of the competition left the Ilford team are in third place in the league. 

Also running well was another of the clubs under 20 prospects Jordan Hinds in 13th with 21 mins 36 secs,  Jenni Sheehan with 22 mins 19 secs and there was a personal best for Kim Baxter of 29 mins 35 secs, her first run under 30 minutes.

Also ran:  Terry Knightley (69  20.14) Rohan Alexander (89 20.41)  Alan Pearl (96 21.00) Dennis Briggs (110 21.49) Tony Young (140  22.59)Andy catton (158 23.35) Adnan Karim (165 24.00) Bradley Brown (177 24.39)  Ernie Forsyth (188 25.22) Alison Sale (210 26.13) Ray Everingham (229 27.15) Mandeep Bassi (247  27.46) Julia Galea ( 249 27.45) Sharon Honey (282 29.25) Carol Muir (292 30.31) Launa Broadley (294  30.42) Sheila Sinclair (301 32.58) Jim Huddart (303 33.04) Julie Gillender (311 33.52)

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.