Ilford AC’s youngsters were well represented in the first Cross Country Essex League race held at One Tree Hill and hosted by Thurrock Harriers on Saturday

First up in the U11s Boys racewere Matthew Hick and Euan Johnstone. Matthew ran a great race to finish in 3rd position and Euan in his first race over the country finished a very credible 12th.
Ilford then put out 4 athletes inthe u13s Boys race that followed where Farris Patel, improving with every race, led the club home in 10th place and was followed in by Aaron Manget in 14th. Bradley Deacon was next home in 2nd followed by Mehdi Harun who came in 52nd.
In the U15 girls Jordan Hinds worked her way through the field to finish 11th whilst Isabella Hick recorded 32nd. In the Boys U15s Jack Halil, in his first cross country race finished 42nd.

The U17 men’s race was full of quality where Ahmed Abdulle ran suberbly to finish 2nd.
In the senior races Ilford had Krystle Balogun, 19th, and Breege Nordin 43rd flying the flag for the women. The results of the men’s race are still being finalised.

Breege Nordin was in action again the following morning posting 73.34 at the Tiptree 10 to take the top over 55 run of the day prize just getting the better of her long-term adversary Sue Spong of Havering. Yet the top Ilford run of the day went to Steve Philcox who demonstrated he is returning to something like his best form when clocking 60.25 for 7th place.

Valentines Park 5k
Sunday 27th September 2015

Ilford AC fielded one of their stronger squads in the 7th and final race of the East London FiVe Interclub Series (Elvis) held at Valentines Park and hosted by East London Runners last Sunday.
Held over the traditional two lap 5kilometre course 236 runners enjoyed the warm September sunshine producing some very fast times with the leading 2 runners going sub 16 minutes and the top 7 cracking the 17 minute barrier.
Ilford’s men’s team was strengthened by the appearance of 2 talented youngsters, Ahmed Abdulle and Usamah Patel who had both raced the day before at the County Cross Country Relays butnevertheless put in excellent performances. It was Abdulle who led the Ilford charge involving himself in a titanic struggle with Orion’s Jack Stroud which went all the way to the line. As both athletes sprinted for supremecy it was the Orion man who just edged it clocking 15.53 to Abdulle’s 15.55. Crispian Bloomfied of Billericay and the course record holder was back in third with 16.06.­

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The club also dominated the veteran categories with Amin Koikai 7th overall in 16.54 getting the better of an under trained Malcolm Muir 9th in 17.07  in the Male Vet 40 division. Andy Catton easily won the MV60 class in 20.06 placing 54th overall and Tony Hyde just missed out in the over 50’s with his 18.37 and 24th overall being runner up to East London’s Manjit Bedi. Usamah Patel completed the winning scoring team of 4 for the race with 17.13 and 10th place. Next home were Sam Rahman 17.27 and Stephen Philcox 18.01 in 14th and 16th respectively, these 2 athletes closing the team of 6 required for the Elvis competition where once again Ilford triumphed on the day.

The women’s race was notable for the cameo appearance of Havering’s England international Faye Fullerton who holds the ladies course record set a few years back. Fullerton more at home over 1500 metres is however soon to run the Cardiff half marathon and was using this race as a test of pace. Running largely untroubled with her watch set to pace rather than time she picked off some of the faltering leading men in the latter stages to finish like an express train just shy of her own record in 16.42.

Krystle Balogun was Ilford’s top woman in 20.14 for 58th. With club captain Jenni Sheehan unwell and unable to compete the Ilford ladies rallied well with Breege Nordin next home and topover 55 of the day recording 21.36 for 80th place overall just 3seconds ahead of Melinda Jones 21.39 and 83rd closing the ladies team to 2nd place in the race. Nicola Hopkinson ran well to complete the 4th team member home for the Elvis Competition recording 23.11 and 117th.
Other Ilford runners with positionsand times were as follows:-
20th Kevin Wotton 18-16, 25th Neil Crisp 18-40, 49th Rohan Alexander 19-51, 52nd KieranMcKenna 20-03, 54th Andy Catton 20-06, 55th TerryKnightley 20-09, 72nd Gary Float 21-10,84th Stephen Parker 21-46, 112th  John Mackenzie 22-42, 126th ZuzanaSinalova 23-44, 143rd Pathrose Louis 24-31, 145th VictoriaMorgan 24-35, 151st Rachel Halpin 24-49, 154th ErnieForsyth 25-03, 164th Sukhbindar Jandu 26-01, 167th JuliaGalea 26-10, 188th Doris Gaga 27-26, 189th Carol Muir 27-30,219th James Huddart 32-19, 225th Meredith Floate 34-10, 226th MichaelCroft 34-21.

Essex Cross Country Relays
Saturday 26th September 2015

Ilford AC had four young athletes teams representing them at Hockley near Southend last Saturday in one of the best club turnouts coach Ian Gains could remember.

At one stage it looked like the U/17 boys team would not be able to defend their title as they were struggling to put out a team when sprinter Kelechi Okorie came to the rescue opening the account on Leg 1 with 13-01. On Leg 2 Usamah Patel returning to full fitness put in the 6th fastest time of the day with 10-51 before handing over to Ahmed Abdulle on Leg 3. Ahmed Abdulle then put in aoutstanding leg 34sec faster than last year to record 10-11 which proved to be the fastest time of the day by some distance and elevating the team to 8th position.

The U/15 Girls competing at this level for the first time gave an excellent account of themselves. On leg 1 Jordan Hinds 13-25, leg 2 Isabella Hick15-33, leg 3 Katie Deacon 21-22 combined for a team position of 11th.
The U/13 boys A team although 3rd last year had to settle for 4th place this time but ran over 2 minutes faster to produce a solid all round team performance. Leg 1 BradleyDeacon 13-12, leg 2 Farris Patel 13-07, leg 3 Arun Manget 12-19 collectively placed 4th in the team competition.

The U/13 Boys B team had an excellent start with Matthew Hick just edging out the Ateam on leg 1 in 13-04 and solidly backed up by Mehdi Harun on leg 2 with 14-40 and on leg 3 with Euan Johnstone 14-39 giving them a team position 4th in B team race.