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.­

[shashin type=”album” id=”157″ size=”medium” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”n” order=”date” position=”center”]
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.

Ingatestone 5 mile Results 20th September 2015

Ingatestonr-5-Results-200915.xlsx

Wissey Half Marathon
Oxborough, Norfolk
Sunday 6 September

A small squad fro Ilford Ac’s endurance squad travelled to the village of Oxborough in Norfolk for the Wissey Half Marathon which incorporated the British Masters Championship. The race was held on quiet rural roads on an ideal morning for running. Terry Knightley was the first home for the club in 98th spot with Ihr 35mins 35s which placed him 8th in the M55 group in the British M<asters (BMAF). Next home was Steve Parker with 1h 40m 00s for 124th and 11th in the same age group. while group coach Rob Sargent finished in 1h 49m 45s for 153rd and 7th in the M60 BMAF category and won him the bronze medal in the Eastern Veterans Ac Championship, which was also held in this event.

Leading lady was Julia Galea who broke 2 hours for the first time with 1h 58m exactly in 194th overall and placed second in the F60 grouping. There was also a British Masters silver medal for Kim Baxter in her first race at the distance for 25 years. Kim finished in 2h 46m 03s.

The Ilford team also finished second in the BMAF team championship in the M55-64 category through the combined efforts of Knightley Parker and Sargent.

Woodford Green Open Meeting
Tuesday 1st September

Some of the  Ilford younger members took part in the final Woodford Open Meeting last Tuesday. On an almost perfect night,  personal bests were set by many of the athletes.

First up was Robert Grech in the 100 metres who stormed to a time of 15.39, in taking 4^th place.

Next up in  the 400metres was Isabella Hick, who  ran a great race for 2^nd place in a time of 67.8 which was a personal best.In the same race Keshan Beckett Edwards   also set a personal best in coming 4th in a time of 74.8.

The final event was the 1500m which turned into an Ilford procession, with Ilford athletes taking the first four places. First home was Farris Patel in a personal best of 5.23.0. Jordan Hinds and Matthew Hick were battling with Farris  throughout the race with Jordan finishing second in a great time of 5.24.0, with Matthew just a stride behind in 5.24.2. Both athletes were rewarded with personal bests. Matthew is aged under 11 and his time makes him the  8^th fastest in the country for his age group over 1500m. Bradley Deacon came in 4^th in a time of 5.32.1, which is just outside his best.

Harlow 10
Sunday 6th September

Sundays warm and pleasant sunshine provided ideal racing conditions for 2 Ilford runners as they contested the Harlow 10 mile race, moved from its old date in August this year.

Peter Spelman made the best of the windless course clocking 1hr 27. 51 followed in by Pathrose Louis in 1.32.56.

The Essex Way Relay Race
Sunday 6th September

Unable to field a team in this the County’s premier off road relay race this year holders Ilford AC regretably had to relinquish their title to a very strong Springfield Striders squad who for the first time in the history of the race performed a clean sweep in all of  the Open, Ladies and veteran categories. Nevertheless the Club still maintained its strong presence by organising the first leg  between Epping and Ongar in conjunction with East London Runners. They also provided the official scorer Martin Clarke who diligently performed his duties following each of the 10 legs from Epping Station at 8am in the morning and finishing at Harwich Lighthouse at 6pm in the evening. An excellent day was capped by the traditional  fish n chip supper followed by the presentation of prizes in Harwich’s Hanover Arms where the Ilford man was able to introduce the audience  to 2 of the original  Thurrock Nomads known as Fergus and Derek who not only founded and ran in the race back in 1989 but organised  for nearly 20 years funtil both technology and numbers got too much for them. Although obviously no match for the Ilford Scorer they still hadn’t forgotten how to sink a pint.

57 teams involving nigh on 600 runners plus support crew contested the spoils this year.

Other News:  Sam Rahman finished second in 36m 31s in the Barking and Dagenham 10km held on Sunday over a multi-terrain course in Central park