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Young Athletes Report 21st June 2016

Jun 212016

Essex Schools
George Jumps to EssexSchools Gold and top ranking in the country

Ilford’s young athletes had 4 representatives at the Essex Schools champs , held at Chelmsford on Saturday June 11th All 4 athletes competed to an extraordinary high level and showed how much progress they have all made in their short athletics career to date.
All rounder Anthony George was chosen to compete in the Triple Jump very late in the day and after a few training sessions, jumped to win Gold in the u15s Age group in 12.38m. To add to Anthony achievements , his jump on the day pushed him to the highest ranked Triple jumper in the country and will be making his way to the English Schools, representing Essex ,as one of the favourites for Gold.
Jordan Hinds continued her constant improvement over 800m by breaking her personal best again by a massive 6 seconds. Jordan has improved over 25 seconds in the last year over this distance and ran a superb performance to win her first Essex medal by coming home second in 2.20 in a very classy field. Jordan is now only 5 seconds behind the Ilford AC club record and has another year in this age group
Mungo Prior ran in the u15s 1500m and ran 2 big Personal bests in the heat and final of 4.32 and 4.31 respectively. Mungo competing against a very high quality field was unlucky to finish in the dreaded 4th place and just missed out from a deserving bronze medal.
Finally Farris Patel ran in the u15s 800 and ran a very comfortable heat in 2.13 to qualify into the final but found the final very tough, to run a very respectable time of 2.11, 2 seconds off his best from the previous week. Farris still has a year left in this age group so will come back much stronger next year.

Southern League Match 3
Superman Sam
In the third round of Southern League matches held atWoodford last Saturday, Ilford achieved their highest points score of season,but unfortunately this was still only good enough for 5th place.Despite finishing 5th there were some great performances and the team manager is optimistic about the future.
Star man for Ilford was Sam Malekout, who has just recently rejoined Ilford, but threw him into the match, by taking part in 8 events and amassing almost 30 points. Sam’s day started off with the Shot and High Jump, where he took two 4th places. He then decided to have a rest from throwing and jumping to take to the track in the 100m and 800m, with a 3rd in the 100m and a 4th in the 800m. Next up was back to the throws and his favourite event the Javelin where he threw 44.66 which is his furthest throw since 2010.Next up was another 4th place in discus. Finally he did both long and triple jump taking 3rd in the long and 5th in the triple.

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Temi Adeshon in only his second race for came 3rd in the 100m in a time of 12.30 into a strong headwind, he followed this with a rare outing over 200m where he came 5th in a time of 25.00.
Sam Rahman and Neil Crisp, both had great runs in the 5000m,recording times of 17.00.7 for Sam which give him 2nd in the A string and 18.10.4 for Neil for 3rd in the B string. Bradley Brown also ran as a non scorer and recorded a time of19.36.5. Thirty minutes later Neil and Sam were back on the track for the 1500m gaining more value points with Sam taking 2nd place in the A string with 4.42.5 and Neil 3rd in the B string with 5.28.9.
The final member of the mens team was Pete Whiting, who firstly arrived at the venue one week early and then on match day was an hour late. However he made up for this by competing in almost as many events as Sam,gaining a 5th in the Long jump and a 4th in the Triple Jump. Followed by 4th in the Discus, 3rd in the Javelin and 5th in the Hammer.
The womens side only had 5 athletes but they all performed brilliantly. Kelly Mavididi back from University looked really good in winning the A string 400m in a time of 62.10 and followed this up with a seasons best of 27.96 in taking 3rd place in the A string 200m. Jordan Hinds had a rest from her usual event this week and ran in the 400m where she won the B string in 65.34 and a never before outing over 200m where she came 3rd in the B string in a time of 29.57.
Nicola Hopkinson turned up to officiate and have a beer and despite never having thrown anything other than temper, proceeded to do the shot, Javelin and discus. Where she came 5th in the shot and discus and 4th in the Javelin.I have been sworn to secrecy as to the distances, but they will be on power of 10 soon.
The final events of the day were the relays and Isabella Hick and Ellie Wright joined Kelly and Jordan to compete in both relays. In the 4x 100 Isabella gave Ilford a great start, before handing over Ellie who kept Ilford in second place, but the last two changeovers were not as sharp and the team came 3rd.
The last event was the 4x 400 with the same quartet lining up, Jordan ran a powerful first leg to give Ilford a 10 metre lead, before handing over to Ellie, who went off slowly and by the back straight had been caught by the Woodford runner. However with 200m to go Ellie shifted up the gears and moved away to establish a 30 metre lead. Although running on her own Isabella stretched the lead even further to almost 70 metres. Kelly could have taken it easy on the last leg, but she pushed it all the way running the fastest leg of the team and Ilford won in a time of 4.30. 2. Almost 16 seconds clear of second place.

Press Report 14th June 2016

Jun 142016

Woodford Open Graded Meeting
Ilford Youngsters Make the Grade

Ilford’s young athletes had a great night at the recent open graded meeting at Woodford. The late afternoon thunderstorms had finished and it was a perfect night for running, with for the first time in living memory, no gale force wind at a Woodford Open meeting.
First up was new member Temi Adeoshun, who despite getting lost on route and only turning up 15 minutes before the start, ran a great 100m in a time of 12.12. Next up in 100m was Ellie Wright who achieved a personal best time of 13.98 in placing 2nd in the 100m, followed up less than an hour later with another personal best of 29.23 for 3rd place in the 200m. Ayeshah Lawrence was competing in her first ever race and although she was nervous before the race, she ran really well in the 200 to place 5th in a time of 31.27.
All the other athletes competed in the 800m.In the first race Isabella Hick pre race intention was to run 2.40 as she set off exactly on schedule and was even leading the race, but between 400m and 600m, she began to tire and fell 2 seconds off schedule. With 200m to go, she suddenly picked up and produced a great finish to cross the line in 2.40.17 an improvement of 4 seconds. Also in this race was Keshan Beckett Edwards, who was returning to racing after a knee injury, he looked good the whole way and finished strongly to record a personal best of 2.48.51.
Jordan Hinds continued her assault on her 800m personal best knocking another 2 seconds off her best in taking 3rd place in a time of 2.26.70, she has already improved by 18 seconds already this season, and is ranked in the top 200 in the country for her age group.
The final race of the night involved both Mungo Prior and Farris Patel , the pace was fast from the start and both the Ilford athletes were up with the pace. Farris made a move along the back straight, before kicking off the final bend to not only win the race, but set another personal best of 2.09.78. Mungo also knocked 5 seconds off his best in setting a time of 2.12.78
Gary Floate had a night off from coaching to take part in the Self Transcendence 5K at Battersea Park last Monday and clocked 20.38 for 74th place.

Havering 90 Midweek 5 Miles
Tuesday 7th June
The second round of this summer’s Elvis series took place on a muggy evening last Tuesday in Romford’s Raphael’s Park.
24 Ilford athletes lined up for The 5 mile course for the pleasant scenic 2 lap course, slightly undulating, with a nice run along the lake to take in.
The Ilford squad equipped themselves very well in the race being led home by Steve Philcox in 10th spot with 29mins 54 secs taking the M50 category prize. He was followed home by team mates in the next 3 positions: Paul Holloway in a personal best time of 30m 04s, Sam Rahman in 30m 24s and Kevin Wotton with 30m 25s. Neil Crisp was second in the M50 group with 30mins 43 secs for 16th foolowed in by Terry Knightley who closed the scoring team in 20th with 31m 19s to finish second to the strong East London side in the match.

Robin Mcnelis came home in 21st with 31m 29s while Andy Catton onnce again headed the M60 category in 49th with 34m 48s with Declan Cullen second in the same group recording 36m 14s

Nicola Hopkinson led home the unde strength Ilford ladies team as 16th female finisher in 38m 56s and supporting her as the scorers for the club were Dianne Crisp with 41m 29s placing 136th overall, Rachel Halpin in 43m 36s and Julia Galea as 4th F55 category b with 43m 37s.

On the night the ladies team finished 4th but maintain 3rd spot in the league.

Also running wereBradley Brown ( 72nd 36.33) )Billy Green (100th 38.58) Ernie Forysth (109th 39.36) John MacKenzie (118th 40.00)
Pathrose Louis (147th 42.36pb) Peter Spelman (163th 44.42) Carol Muir (174th 46.28) Nichola Fairbairn (175th 46.33)
Nicola Chester (184th 47.44) Doris Gaga (190th 49.39) Pam Jones (206th 52.54).

Southend Half marathon

Conditions were good for running with low temperatures and the rain held off until the finish. Ilford AC’s Peter Spelman was pleased to clock 1.56.06

Press Report 7th June 2016

Jun 072016

Orion Forest 5

Ilford AC’s Steve Philcox led a trio of club runners home in the first of Orion’s 3 race forest 5 mile series held over the normal undulating multi-terrain course at Chingford Plain on Saturday morning. Philcox clocked 31.37 for 12th spot overall just missing out on the top male vet 50 run of the morning.
He was accompanied by Peter Spelman who managed 128th place with 46.56 and the legendary Pam Jones competing in the female over 55 category but incredibly in her 80th year and clocking 55.11 in 144th.

SCVAC – Match 2 Stevenage

A small contingent of 3 travelled to Stevenage recently to compete in match 2 of the Vets League. Due to the schedule it was difficult to cover events resulting in the team finishing 9th out of 10.

Despite this it is possible that Henry Ricketts (35+)now holds a club Vets record having run in the 200m hurdles recording 33.2s for sixth place. He also finished 5th in the flat 200m in a time of 28.3s. The theme of 5th also continued in the shot with a distance of 7m 23.

Pete Whiting (50+) competing in the 200m finished seventh in 32.2s. In the Hammer he also finished seventh with 18m 84. His best placing was sixth in the discus with 22m 53.

Ted Skinner (60+) had the best results of the evening finishing fourth in the 200m in 34.1s and third in the 800m in 3.13.4.

A big thanks to Claire Levey who represented Ilford as an official timekeeper.

Match 3 moves onto Barnet Copthall on the evening of 13th June.

Press Report Ilford 31st May 2016

May 312016

Southern League Match 2 – Mile End Stadium
22nd May 2016
Golden girls win Again and Again
A small team of just seven athletes competed for Ilford in the latest round of the Southern League at Mile end last Sunday. Despite finishing in 5th place in the overall standings there were some superb individual performances and wins.
On the ladies side Ilford’s Dynamic duo of Krystle Balogun and Jordan Hinds continued their dominance of the 400m and 800m, with both A and B string victories in both events. Since returning to the southern League last year Ilford have had seven matches and Krystle has won every 800m race. At Mile End she won the 800m in a time of 2.25.3, with Jordan second in a time of 2.31.4, which won her the B string. One hour later they were back on the track in the 400m with the same result Krystle 1st in 61.4 to win the A string and Jordan a PB of 65.0 to win the B string. Not content with her afternoon’s work Krystle then dropped down to the 200m where she recorded a personal best time of 27.28 in placing 3rd.
On the men’s side Ahmed Abdulle was the star performer, running away from the field in the 3000m to win in a personal best time of 8.44.5. Ahmed’s training partner Tom Gardner also ran the 3000m, but was showing the effects of running a 10,000m the night before and this time could not stay with Ahmed. However he did manage to gain valuable point by placing 2nd in the B string with a time of 9.31.4.
New member Simeon Balson who only joined the club the previous week was straight into league action in a fast 800m. The pace was quick from the start, but Simeon pushed the pace further at the half way point. He was still leading with 200m to go, but faded slightly to end up 3rd in an excellent time of 2.02.4
Usamah Patel found the going tough in the 1500m, but still ran a season’s best time of 4.33.20 for 7th place in the 1500m.
Club stalwart Pete Whiting was Ilford’s sole representative in the field events placing 4th in the Discus with 17.23 and 5th place in both the hammer and Javelin, with throws of 18.30 and 24.61.
Sam Malekout who is not yet eligible to score for Ilford competed in two events, jumping 5.42 in the Long jump and a great throw of 43.39 in the Javelin.
Hatfield Broad Oak 10km
Monday 30 May

Two of the Ilford AC ladies travelled into the Essex countryside for the Hatfield Broad Oak 10km which is staged in conjunction with the annual village festival. On a blustery morning 1216 finished the race held over a rural course around the village, Carol Muir came home in 59 mins 16 secs in 912th spot, while Pam Jones finished 1090th with 65mins 10 secs, 35th in the grand masters category

Vitality London 10k
Monday 30 May

On a cool Bank Holiday Monday morning, 11,000 runners set out on the Vitality London 10k, including 12 athletes from Ilford AC.
The conditions probably suited the runners far more than the crowd, many of whom adorned unseasonal jumpers and jackets along the route.
The 10k starts on The Mall and takes in some Iconic London landmarks including Trafalgar Square, Guildhall, St. Pauls Cathedral and The Houses of Parliament before finishing outside Buckingham Palace.

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Leading the Ilford Athletes home was Steve Philcox who finished 27th in his age group with a time of 36:37, followed by Bradley Brown with a time of 40:14.
Leading the ladies home, with a very impressive 42:41 was Breege Nordin who was 4th in her age group.
Another athlete worthy of mention was Zuzana Sinalova who completed her very first run at this distance in a time of 47:56
Other Ilford participants with times were Gary Floate 43.09, Ernie Forsyth 48.15, Billy Green 49.25, Julia Galea 53.54, Pathrose Louis 54.09, Sukhbindar Jandu 56.46, Julie Gillender 59.41, and Doris Gaga 64.21.

Folkestone Coastal 10k Road Race
9th May 2016

On Sunday Two Ilford Athletic Club members travelled to the very windy seafront on the Kent Coast along with almost 500 other runners for the 5th Annual Folkestone Coastal 10K Road Race.

On a recent return to form, Terry Knightley battled the conditions well to finish in 13th Overall position in 38 Minutes and 14 Seconds and win the First Male Veteran Over 55 Trophy and also finish over a minute ahead of the the first over 50 Male Veteran.

The day before he had won the Thurrock Park Run in 18 minutes and 43 seconds and break the Male Veteran Over 55 Course Record.

Kim Baxter ran strongly to finish in 426th place for 68 minutes and 17 seconds and better her time from last year.

All finishers received a medal and goody bag and free cup of tea and cake for their efforts !

Kent Road Runner Marathon
28th May 2016
Ilford’s ultra man Peter Spelman ran the Kent Road Runner marathon last Saturday which took place at the multi-million pound Cyclopark venue in Gravesend Kent. Peter took advantage of a course that makes use of a perfectly smooth 1.29 mile private tarmac circuit – absolutely no traffic, no pedestrians and no dogs, recording a gun time of 4.30.32 for 5th male vet 60 .

250 Up

Ilford AC’s Carol Muir completed her 250th parkrun covering 139 destinations when crossing the line in the Stevenage Park Run last Saturday.

Westminster Mile

Personal bests galore for Ilford youngsters

Ilford ACs Young middle distance group competed in the Vitality Junior British Champs this weekend, with all athletes achieving a personal best. It was great to see so many Ilford youngsters competing in the various Boys and Girls events.
Some of the best junior athletes from all over the country travelled to St James Park for this prestigious event and the Ilford athletes delivered strong performances in perfect weather conditions.
First up was the under 11s Boys where Matthew Hick battled through the field to come 12th position, in a time of 5.49.Euan Johnstone was not far behind in 29th in a very encouraging time of 6.16.
A special mention goes to Aaron Hick, who competed in his first athletics race. Aaron is only 8 years old and sprinted the last 200 of the race, taking over many athletes in his way and ran a superb time of 6.58
Next up was the u13s Boys where Farris Patel was with the leading group the whole race and once again used his speed at the end to out sprint a number of athletes to come an outstanding 6th place, in a time of 5.06
Bradley Deacon improves with every race and backed Farris up with a solid 43rd position in 5.45.

In the u15s Boys, Mungo Prior, competed against some really quality athletes and broke his personal best by over 10 seconds to run 4.55 and come 29th
Last but not least was the U15 Girls where Ilford had 2 youngsters compete. First home was Jordan Hinds who came 18th in 5.51 and Isabella Hick ,21st in 6.35.

Press Report 24th May 2016

May 242016

Dagenham 5 Mile (ish)

The 2016 Elvis Race Series got off to a good start at Eastbrook End Country Park on Tuesday Evening when Dagenham 88 hosted the first of this years 7 summer races with their 5 mile ish event. The ‘ish’ purposely appears in the title courtesy of the host Club to announce that the measurement of the course is notoriously inaccurate. Past races have been anything from 4.7 – 5.3 miles but this year most runners garmins recorded around the 5 mile mark. Last years race fell on the hottest day for 16 years, and this years featured a magnificently moody sky and double rainbow.

After a lot of rain during the day it hadn’t really abated for the start of the race which set off both in thick grass and cold conditions. The course was remarkably complex, full of twists and turns in mud, grassland and trail paths which made it difficult for runners to overtake in many places, and passing the start half a dozen times which although good for spectators only served to confuse the runners.

[shashin type=”album” id=”172″ size=”medium” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”n” order=”date” position=”center”]Nevertheless the Ilford AC men’s squad put in a very good performance making a clean sweep of the male veteran categories with Robi McNelis (MV40). Steve Philcox (MV50) and Andy Catton (MV60) taking the respective honours. It was notable that the scoring team of Philcox, McNelis, Wotton, Crisp, Alexander, and Knightley were 2nd in the Elvis team competition despite all being veterans and with the 6 of them sharing a combined age of 297.

Mens results:-

5th Stephen Philcox 30:28 1st M50
9th Robin McNelis 31:35 1st M40
11th Kevin Wotton 31:51
13th Neil Crisp 31:57
27th Rohan Alexander 33:46
30th Terry Knightley 34:17
44th Andy Catton 35:43 1st M60
45th Bradley Brown 35:48
68th Declan Cullen 37:47
96th Billy Green 40:07
97th John Mackenzie 40:17
113th Ernest Forsyth 41:47
158th Peter Spelman 46:07

The ‘Ilford ladies’ squad also put in a great effort despite missing some of their ‘big hitters’ and some very good early season times were recorded with Nicola Hopkinson triumphing in the FV45 category. There was also a great debut performance from Nichola Fairbairn who combined with Nicola Hopkinson, Rachel Halpin, and Dianne Crisp to close the squad to 3rd in the Elvis team competition.

Ladies results:-

87th Nicola Hopkinson 39:24 1st F45
132nd Rachel Halpin 43:17
133rd Dianne Crisp 43:19
167th Nichola Fairbairn 46:58
171st Nicola Chester 47:16
185th Carol Muir 49:39
187th Doris ‘Lady’ Gaga 49:49
206th Julie Gillender 52:38

European masters road race championship
Friday 20th May
Monte Gordon Portugal

Ilford AC had two representatives in the British contingent in the 10km event at the European road racing championship stage in the small Portuguese town of Monte Gordon on the Algarve neat the Spanish border. Even though the race started at 7pm both Edward Skinner and Rob Sargent found the going tough with the temperature still above 27C. Skinner in his first international competition fared better of the duo to finish the two lap out and back course in 49 mins 09 secs to place 283rd out of the 356 finishers in the men’s race, giving him 42nd in the m60 age grouping and 8th British man in this group. Sargent finished in 56 mins 27 secs in 328th overall 53rd m60 and 11th Brit in this category. The competitors in the race represented ages from 35 to over 90.