Press Report 6th March 2017  

Mar 062017
 

Brighton Half Marathon (26th Feb), Essex 20 Langham (5th March)

Ilford AC’s Blair McWhirter has been in excellent form of late narrowly missing out on a podium finish at the prestigious Brighton half marathon 2 weeks ago. The Ilford man clocked a speedy 68.58 just 3 secs behind the 3rd place man and with only 21 seconds covering the first 4 places.The race was won by Kent AC’s Jonathan Tipper clocking 68.37in a high class field with the first 6 home all breaking the 70 minute barrier.

Coincidentally it was another member of the same club Kent AC who was to deny McWhirter of the victory spoils a week later in the Essex 20 miles Road Championships held around the rural lanes of Langham. This time James Connor of the Kent Club but, running as an Essex qualified athlete, broke away from the field to take the Essex Gold in an excellent time of 1.49.09.

The 3 lap course started in heavy rain and wind but conditions improved after the first of the 3 laps. The race also incorporated an eight county match and Ilford’s Kiwi McWhirter was also representing Essex. Settling into 4th place early in the race he made a determined effort over the last 3 miles to second, overhauling Dean Lacey of Cambridge and Springfield’s Paul Molyneux to take the silver medal in the Essex Championship in 1hr 50mins 45 secs and was part of the winning Essex team in the inter-counties match.

There were also some excellent performances from the rest of the Ilford AC team. Malcom Muir, as usual, gave his all to finished 18th in 1hr 58mins 16secs and take the bronze medal in the M40 category, while there was a personal best time of 2hrs 07 mins 35 secs for Paul Holloway in 47th spot. These three athletes combined as the Ilford team and placed 3rd in the team championship.

Next home for the club with solid runs were Neil Crisp in 70th with 2hrs 14mins 27secs and Sam Rahman in 2h 15m 37s for 73rd. Crisp’s performance earned him an excellent County bronze in the male over 50s section.

Steve Parker was also in good form in 186th with 2h 38m 52s which placed him second in the M60 age group, winning his his first ever county medal. Dennis Briggs made his debut at the distance and showed his marathon training is on track with 2h 42m 23s while there were also personal bests for Declan Cullen with 2h 43m 47s, in 209th good enough for an excellent bronze in the M60 category and Satha Alaganandasundaram in 243rd with 2h 53m 12s.


















  Press Report 28th February 2017  

Feb 282017
 

National Cross Country Championships
Wollaton Park Nottiingham 25th February

Ilford AC’s Malcolm Muir was the Club’s sole representative in the 2017 Saucony English National Cross Country Championships held at Wollaton Park, Nottingham last Saturday. Near on 1800 runners toed the line at the start of the senior men’s race with veteran Muir finishing in a fine 303rd place over 12k of the muddy and testing course. Muir’s time was 46 minutes 33 seconds. The men’s title went to Ben Connor of Derby in 39.35 with Jessica Judd of Chelmsford triumphant in a time of 29.07 over the 8k of a hard fought senior women’s race.

Lee Valley Veterans Inter Area Meeting
Sunday 26th February

Last Sunday Ilford veteran John Batchelor represented the SCVAC at an Inter-Area meeting at Lee Valley, where the results system broke down early on and when he left after 6 pm without seeing any of my results on the board. Batchelor ran in the M70 events as 10-year age brackets applied. At midday John kicked off with a 1500m (M60 & M70 combined) and was well beaten into second place in his age bracket by rival Peter Giles, three years younger than himself, but recorded on his own watch 5:47.1, his M75 best so far. Twenty minutes later, with legs still jellified, the Ilford man started in the 400m (M70 only), and acquitted himself well in third place though staggering a bit at the finish, but don’t know the time. Batchelor hopes to run much better in the BMAF Champs in two weeks time. After a couple of hours break John took charge from the start in the M70 800m and won in about 2:51.0, just under his M75 best. Finally at the end of the meeting he ran a leg in the M70 4x200m winning team (of two) and still managed to walk a mile to the station!

John now hopes to run four events over two days in the British Masters indoors – all subject to having two good legs on the day.

Roding Valley Half Marathon
Sunday 26 February

There were three runners from Ilford AC in the annual Roding valley Half Marathon held on the usual challenging road course around the busy roads of Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill.First home for the club was Steve Philcox, who was slightly under par following a bout of the flu, in 40th spot in 1hr 28mins 05secs, while Bradley Brown put in a good performance for 70th in hr 32mins 22secs, his best time for 4 years. Completing the trio was Peter Spelman in 384th out of the 542 finishers with 2hrs 05mins 27secs

 

  Press Report 21st February 2017  

Feb 212017
 

Chingford League 8km
Victoria Park
Sat 18 February

A trio of Ilford AC runners took part in the Chingford league match at Victoria Park last Saturday as guest competitors to test their winter training progress.

Dennis Briggs, who will be running in April’s London Marathon, is shaping up well finishing the flat, fast circuit in 34 mins 13 secs for 93rd in a field of excess of 180. Nicola Hopkinson continued her fine form of the winter coming home in 114th, which placed her 21st in the ladies result, with 36mins 40secs. Completing the squad was club legend Pam Jones in 177th with 50 mins 6 secs.

Veteran Indoor Championships
Ilford supervetran John Batchelor has been extremely busy over the past fortnight opening up his indoor season in the Vets AC/South of England Championships at Lee Valley last Sunday week winning the M75 800m and 1500m titles as the only competitor in his age group, running respectable times of 2:53.48 and 5:56.48 against younger opposition, though well to the back of both fields.

Batchelor followed this up last Sunday with 3 gold medal M75 gold medal performances in the Southern Vets AC Indoor Championships held at the same venue. In the 800m and 1500 metres he clocked times of 2.52.05 and 6.02.19 which were both recorded as Championship Best Performances before going on to win his age category in the 3000 metres with a time of 12.40.66.

  Press Report 14th February 2017  

Feb 142017
 

Press Report 14th February 2017

A light falling of snow greeted the runners for the final Essex League fixture of the season at Basildon on Saturday. Although the snow meant that some of the fields were a little down in numbers, this was a real cross country test, with repeated ascents and descents of a steep hill on every lap.
First up was Matthew Hick in the Under 13 race. Matthew had hit a bit of form in the last few weeks and his confidence was high and this showed in the way that he started the race. After the opening 400m, Matthew was up with the leaders nicely placed around 11th. The course then took the runners out of view to the hilly sections. Matthew dug deep on the hills and by the time the runners reappeared he had moved up to 8th, but unfortunately lost two places in the sprint finish, but still ended up an excellent 10th which also placed him 8th overall in the final tables.
Next up were the Under 15 Boys in which Ilford had four runners. Mungo Prior led with a charging effort followed by Aaron Samuel. Next was Jack Halil who also made an aggressive start and finally Bradley Deacon. The Under 15’shad a similar course to the Under 13’s, but with an additional loop at the end of which saw Mungo contesting the lead with Aaron back in about12th, Jack behind and Bradley in the mid 20’s. As the race progressed Mungo was still in the top three and Aaron was making rapid progress through the field. Jack was having his best run of the season and Bradley had moved up a few places. Descending the final hill Aaron overtook Mungo and held onto third place, Mungo came in fourth place. Run of the day was from Jack who came in a brilliant 11th, Bradley also had a great run getting a best ever league finishing position of 21st. The final overall tables saw Mungo in a brilliant bronze position with Bradley 20th. The boys finished top of the tree in this fixture out of 9 competing teams and 5th out of12 in the final tables.
After a tough winter season, which has been disrupted by injury and exams, Jordan Hinds had her best race of the season in the Under17’s women’s race. Although a small field, in was packed with quality ,including the first four in this year’s Essex champs. The leaders made an early break, but Jordan had positioned herself in a great position just outside the top ten and as the field approached the hills she pushed on into the top ten. On the long run into the finish , it looked like she might even take a few more places, but the women in front just held on, and Jordan ended up with a League best place of 8th.
Away from the Country two of Ilford’s younger girls took part in the Valentines Park Run, Lesley Rogers produced a great personal best of 27.12 to take 51st place overall and 8th in the ladies section. Katie Deacon was rewarded for all her recent hard training with a personal best of 30.40 for 97th overall and 25thin the ladies section.

In the Senior Races at Basildon the Ilford AC men rallied to place 5th  place out of 12 to lift themselves to 8thposition in the final tables thus avoiding relegation. They were boosted by the appearance of their U20 top runner Ahmed Abdulle who produced his normal brilliant run finishing 2nd only being beaten by the established Cambridge veteran Sullivan Smith. He was well supported by Alex Richards who had an extremely solid run for 10thplace and veteran Paul Holloway likewise producing the goods with 31st place in a very high class field. Seb Parriss continues to impress and improve with 54th place ahead of the dependable Neil Crisp in 64th sharing another good run with another veteran Dennis Briggs in 119th. Ted Skinner flew the flag in the over 60 category with 155th place. Additionally Paul Holloway placed a very high 4th in the mv40 final tables , Dennis Briggs 27thand Ted Skinner the 5th mv60.

Unfortunately a depleted Ilford ladies team could not stave off relegation despite the efforts of 2 club stalwarts Bree Nordin who finished 41st and Dianne Crisp not far behind in 58th. Final reckonings placed Ilford 11th out of the 12 competing teams in Division 1 with Nicola Hopkinson showing 8thand Dianne Crisp 11th in the w45 section.

Elsewhere and on the roads Satha Alaganandsundaram took part in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 10km last Sunday (Feb 112) run in the park pasting the main Olympic stadium on a flat fast course. Satha, who is running in the London Marathon in April, showed his training is going well by finishing a well paced race in 157th in a field of 737 with a new personal best time of 47 mins 08 secs chipped time gun time 48m 28s. His previous best was at BUPA 10k few years ago 47m 48s.


  Press Report 7th February 2017  

Feb 072017
 

Young Athletes
A small number of Ilford AC young athletes competed in some high quality races in the last week doing the Club proud with their performances

In the year 7 Essex Schools X country Championships, 253 athletes competed. Matthew Hick, representing his school, as opposed to the borough, went off with the leaders from the start. Matthew continued to battle during the race and was outsprinted by 2 athletes at the end , but came a very promising 6th. As a result of this performance Matthew has been picked to represent Essex in the intercounties in March. Subsequently Matthew’s team won the team event and he won his first ever Essex medal.
In the Havering Mini Marathon trials, Matthew Hick and Jack Halil competed in the trials fighting for a place in the Havering team. Matthew finished 3rd to claim his place but unfortunately despite running extremely well in a high quality under 15 race Jack just missed out on a place in the team

Aaron Samuels represented Essex in the Intercounties at the weekend. Aaron , who recently won the Essex Schools gets better with every race, came a superb 5th position in a top quality race. Ahmed Abdulle, also Essex Schools champion and 9th in the Southern Counties, finished a brilliant 2nd.

London Winter Run
Club captain Billy Green was Ilford AC’s sole representative in last Sunday’s Club London Winter Run when 15000 runners from all over the world toed the line raising money for Cancer Research. Billy is a great supporter of this type of event and greatly enjoyed the run which started in Trafalgar Square and finished in Whitehall taking in many of the Capital’s iconic sights along the 10k route. Billy’s time was 52.01.

 

 

 

 

 

DOUBLE SATURDAY SUCCESS FOR SEB

Ilford’s Seb Parris had a busy Saturday as he came 2nd in the morning Valentine Park parkrun. Not one to rest on his laurels, he travelled to Lee Valley Indoor Arena to line up in the Essex County 1 Mile Championship, where he comfortably landed a gold medal in only his 2nd appearance on an indoor banked track. His 9 minutes 26 seconds was well ahead of defending champion Keith Palmer (Southend), winner in both 2015 & 16. Ilford AC gained 2-of-3 individual medals on offer as stalwart Dave Ainsworth claimed the bronze medal in 12.12, making it a remarkbale time span – as his first Essex individual medal was in the 1975 County 50 Kilometres 42 years’ ago!

Issued by Ilford AC Walking Section (01708-377382)