*PRESS REPORT 23rd MAY 2017*

*Dagenham 5 Miles (Elvis Series)Wednesday 17th May 2017*

The 2017 Elvis series (East London fiVes Interclub series) got off to a good start at Eastbrook End Country Park on Wednesday Evening when Dagenham 88 hosted the first of this years 7 summer races with their 5 mile event.
27 Ilford AC runners lined up at the start, including 5 members having their first ever race for the club
Heavy rain had settled in for the evening and on a course full of twists and turns on grass and trail paths, the rain ensured there was plenty of mud and slippery slopes to contend with.
Nevertheless the Ilford AC squad put in a very good performance with the mens team providing the first 3 V50 runners with Stephen Philcox, Tony Hyde and Neil Crisp, and Dianne Crisp being the first female V55 runner home.

*Mens results:-*
9th Stephen Philcox 29:32, 14th Sam Rahman 30:51, 15th Seb Parris 31:30, 21st Tony Hyde 32:05, 25th Neil Crisp 32:24, 51st Dennis Briggs 36:00, 54th Andy Catton 36:25, 65th Declan Cullen 37:11, 66th Stephen Parker 37:17, 73rd Bradley Brown 37:32, 93rd Adnan Karim 39:05, 109th Ernie Forsyth 40:15, 117th Billy Green 40:45, 123rd Anthony Young 41:22, 127th Rhoan Gabbidon 41:38, 143rd Stuart Bennett 43:28.

*Ladies results:-*
96th Nicola Hopkinson 39:30, 116th Dianne Crisp 40:45, 174th Julia Galea 46:39, 178th Nichola Fairbairn, 181st Nicola Chester 46:59, 184th Frieda Keane 47:26, 193rd Natasha Mansouri 48:28, 210th Carol Muir 50:12, 227th Julie Gillender 53:10, 238th Pam Jones 56:40, 250th Brennie Gabbidon 1:06:59

*Southern League Athletics Meeting. Woodford Saturday 20th May 2017*

Woodford was the setting for the second southern league match last Saturday, it is a venue which is normally windy, but this time the athletes and officials had to also put up with several downpours. It was a tough match again with the top two teams from the first round matches Woodford and Orion, as well as Newham & Essex Beagles, Braintree and Colchester

Anthony George produced the star individual performance of the day for Ilford, firstly he produced a personal best of 5 metres 50 to win the B string long jump, but his Triple jump was even better with a leap of 12metres 94 which was another personal best and currently ranks him 8th best jumper in the country for his age. To cap his day off he also ran in both relays. Anthony was joined in the jumps by his Simeon Stuart who out jumped is athlete in the Long jump with 5m 73 for 5th in the A string and
then 9m 54 for 6th place in the B string Triple Jump.
Sam Malekout and Mungo Prior competed in the High Jump with Sam clearing 1metre 50 for 5th in the A and Mungo 1m 45 for 3rd in the B string, Mungo went on to compete in the 1500 where he came 5th in the A string in 4.35.
Sam had his usual busy day competing in the Shot, Discus, Javelin and stepping in at the last minute to place second in the B string 400m
Pete Whiting and Neil Johnstone covered the remaining throws between them, and managed to secure 14 valuable points.

Vignesh Rameshbabu was making his league debut and ran an impressive 400m of 54.54, before running an equally good relay leg. Temi Adeoshun covered the shorter sprints running an impressive 11.53 in the 100m, but unfortunately the wind was over the allowable limit. After doing the 800m Jack Halil stepped into the 100m B string and looked very good in running 13.21 for 5th place. Unfortunately later in the afternoon he was injured running the opening leg of 4x 400m.

Ilford struggled to get runners out in the middle distance events, but Moaad Zaahri had a very good run in the 3000m for 3rd place in the A string 3000m in a time of 9.55.73.
Tony Nixon who approaching 70 turned up to rake the Long Jump pit, but ended up running the B string 3000m and took 4th
place in the B string. At the other end of the age scale young Mario Dobrescu ran in both relays, with a very opening leg in the 4x 100.
The women’s section is beginning to grow in size and there were some great individual performances, together with two great relays
Two athlete managed personal bests first up was Ellie Wright who ran the 200m in the worst of the days conditions, but managed to break 28 seconds for the first time in clocking 27.86 for 5th place in the 200m. Also running a personal best was Zuzana Sinalova who had a great race in the 1500m, in which she took the lead with 500m to go; but was narrowly beaten
by the Orion athlete. However she was rewarded with a new best time of 5.34.36.

Krystle Balogun​ continued her impressive record in the southern league by again winning both the 400m and 800m in 61.29 and 2.27.20 and new member Efemena Adjarifo was impressive in taking 5th in the A sting 100m and 4th in the B sting 200m, in times of 13.36 and 28.97.
The 4x 100 saw Krystle actually being given a rest, as Isabella Hick made a great start, before handing over to Efemena who maintained the teams position, Ayeshah Lawrence ran a great third leg and moved the team up to 3rd place, which Ellie maintained to the finish.

Krystle was back for the 4x 400 and ran the opening leg and established the team in second, Ayshah was nervous of running the 400m but after receiving her instruction from Ellie, she ran exactly to plan and maintained second place. Isabella also not used to running 400m ran another great leg which just left Ellie to bring the team home second.
Ilford ended the match in 6th place, but the 128 match points they received is the second highest they have achieved since re-joining the league two years ago.

*Stirling Marathon Sunday 21st May 2017*

2 Ilford AC runners made their way North of the border for The Stirling Scottish Marathon, the latest addition to the Scottish running calendar.
The predominantly fast and flat course, held in the spectacular and historic setting of Stirlingshire, provided an awe-inspiring experience for experienced and first time marathoners alike.
Both runners had a fantastic race with Malcolm Muir finishing 7th in 2:43:04 and Robin McNelis coming in 49th in a time of 2:57:34

 

*ILFORD AC PRESS REPORT 15th MAY 2017*

*Veterans AC 5 Mile Road Race and Walk. Battersea Park Tuesday 9th May*

On Tuesday evening Ilford athlete Steve Philcox was a comfortable winner of the Vets AC Road race at Battersea Park in a time of 28.40, his fastest 5 mile time for 2 years.
In the 5 mile race walk event Ilford ac member Mark Culshaw, finished 2nd in a time of 48.02, just losing his race by 1 second.

*Essex Track Championships. Chelmsford Saturday 13th May and Sunday 14th May*

*Aaron Samuels smashes 2 Ilford AC Club Records*

Aaron Samuels was Ilford’s star performer at the Essex Track championship at Chelmsford over the weekend. The Under 15’s 1500m was a straight final, and from the gun Aaron took total control creating a ten metre gap after the first lap, which he stretched to almost 80 metres by the finish. His time was an impressive 4.13. This was a personal best by almost 7 seconds
and also beat his own Ilford AC club record by the same amount.

Aaron was back the following day to compete in a quality 800m U 15’s Heat and Final. Aaron comfortably made the final and in the final set off really well and sat on the Favourite from Woodford. With 300m to go both athletes kicked for the finish and both were neck and neck, with the Woodford guy just beating Aaron to the finish line. Consolation for Aaron was a personal best by over 3 second and another club record, which had stood for over 30 years, of 2.04.

This was one of the best Track performances by an Ilford athlete for many years.

Mungo Prior also competed in the 1500m, but in the Under 17 age group.
There were a few more athletes in this age group, so two heats were required. Mungo was in heat two and was up with the leaders until about 800m to go, when he missed the break. He managed to finish in 6th place in a season best 4.33.0, which was not quite good enough to make the final.
Mungo however came back the following day to come 2nd in the U17s 200m Steeplechase. This was the first time Mungo had run the steeplechase but he showed his flexibility to compete very well and earn his Essex medal

Farris Patel has been concentrating on the shorter distances early season, and therefore competed in the under 15’s 300m, this also was a straight final. Farris made a great start and was lying in second place coming off the final bend. However he paid for his fast start down the home straight and faded to 4th place, agonisingly missing a medal by 0.01 seconds.
However he ran a personal best of 39.3 and bodes well for his return to 800meters later in the season.

Mario Dobrescu looked good in coming in second place in the heats of the under 15’s 100m and eventually came 4th in the final

Matthew Hick competed in a high quality U13s 1500m final , finishing 5th in a new personal best of 5.07. Jack Halil ran an even lapped 800m in the u17s and ran 2.23 but missed out on the final, despite being very close to his personal best.

Alex Richards ran the senior mens 800m and came an impressive 4th in 1:58pb. Alex led at 600m but lack of training meant he got passed in the home straight.
Krystle Bologun ran her normal solid run in the ladies 800m finishing in 3rd place in 2:18 pb

Nearly all the Ilford athletes ran Personal bests so overall a great weekend for the Clubs youngsters

*Tynedale Half Marathon*

*Sunday 14 May*

Ilford AC’s Tony Young returned to his native Northumberland at the weekend to take on the Tynedale Half Marathon. The rolling course starts and finishes in Tynedale Country Park and runs along the banks of the River Tyne. Tony showed that his training at the club is producing results as he improved his personal best to 1 hour 54 mins 42 secs as he finished in 75th place

*RunThrough 10K. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Sunday 14th May *

550 runners competed in this monthly event held on a warm morning at The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Dennis ran an even pace to finish in 58th position, with a time of 44:54
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