Press Report 17th February 2015  

Feb 172015
 

Chingford League 8km Road Race
Victoria Park Hackney
Saturday 14 February 2015

The last round of this winter’s Chingford League was held last Saturday on a fast flat course in East London’s famous Victoria Park on what was otherwise a quiet weekend for Essex and East London Road Running.
The 8km race was held over 2 laps and Ilford AC fielded three ‘guest’ competitors in the large field of 252. Leading the way for the club was Kieran McKenna in 108th spot with 31m 08secs, while Rob Sargent recorded 38m 23s in 210th. The fast improving Doris Gaga was again in fine form crossing the line 232nd with 41m 53s.

  Press Report Ilford AC 10th February 2015  

Feb 102015
 

Lee Valley Indoors Centre
Essex and Eastern Counties combined champs
8th – 9th February 2014
Ilford AC’s small team of middle distance athletes excelled at these champs. Krystle Bologun got the squad off to a good start in the 800 metres setting a fast pace from the start coming home 1st in 2-22, a Pb for indoors & both titles. Next was Jack Maher who has been out of form lately but not to day with 150m in the 800 to go he made his move to come home 1st in 2-01 for a Pb indoors & both titles. Reining champion Usamah Patel faced his training partner Ahmed Abdulle in the 1500m,. The pace was fast from the start with Ahmed coming home 1st with a new Pb & Championship Best record of 4-13 & both tittles with Usamah settling for 2nd place in both titles.Tom Gardner in the senior 1500 was among 3 athletes breaking away from the pack and heading for a tight finish with Tom just missing out on the dip for the line in 4-12 Pb indoorsand 1st essex 2nd eastern counties.13 year old Isabella Hick in her first ever 800 ran a creditable 7th 2-56.
Thomas CooneyThe Championships also proved to be a very successful weekend for the Ilford Sprints squad.

Muhammed Weyli (U17) making an impressive comeback by winning Gold in Eastern Counties and in Essex with a winning time of 7.25s for the 60m. In the semi finals he managed to run a PB of 7.22 and was expected to run sub 7.20 in the finals.However due to never using blocks before and deciding to use it in the finals resulted in a stumble which he managed to courageously recover from and therefore win the race.

Training partners, Thomas Cooney (U15) and Shane Johnson (U15), both medalled in the 300m which was also an exciting race from start to finish. Thomas rapidly accelerating into first place but Shane battles hard to keep in the race, the fight from both athletes allowed both the training partners to come first and second. Thomas with a winning time of 40.18s, and Shane just a second behind.

Thomas Cooney also medalled in two other events, the 200m and 60m. Therefore gaining a total of 6 medals in under 24 hours. For a first championship that is very impressive. In the 200m despite winning his heat officials managed to mix up the lanes resulting in Thomas being in lane 1 (worst lane in indoors tracks). Regardless of his lane he still managed to come 3 rd with a time of 24.42 a new indoor PB. And in the 60m sprint he also came 3 rd with a time of 7.50.
Many other Ilford athletes competed including Zehn Ahmed (U17) who’s been out of training and not in the best condition yet still managed to run 7.62s in the 60m.

Amazigh Laoudi (U20) who’s been suffering an ongoing back injury for over 4 months still managed to win his 400m heats with ease at a time of 52.09s (close to a PB) but unfortunately coming 4 th in the Finals, still medalled for Essex however.

Victoria Onyeka (U23) competed in the 60m,200m, and 400m all in one weekend, very difficult to do but still managed to PB in the 200m with a time of 27.93s and the 400m with a time of 61.90s.

Imani Looby (U17W) had a strong performance this weekend, although it was her first ever race she managed to make it into the semi finals for the 200m with a heat time of 28.87s, not bad for a first 200m and then in the semi’s she managed to keep consistent with a time of 28.89s.

Other Races

Meanwhile Club Captain and prolific racer Malcolm Muir ran the Chichester priory 10km last Sunday on a perfect crisp morning!

With the usual class field of some 1500 runners the race was won by Toby Lambert in 30.03. Muir topped the Male 40 vet section with an excellent 32.50 which gave him 24th position overall. The Ilford man was happy with his performance despite confessing to a poor 1st half in 16.45 but picked up later finishing strongly and coming back in 16,.05.
In North Essex Ilford stalwart Ian Wilson made a rare appearance at the fast Great Bentley half marathon running a very respectable 92.21 which gave him 138th place out of 724 finishers.

  Press Report 3rd February 2015  

Feb 032015
 

Essex Cross Country League

AbbeyFields Colchester
Saturday 31 January

The final round of this winter was held over a grassland course at Abbey Field in Colchester on a cold afternoon last Saturday.

First up were the junior races where the ever present U/13 boys Bradley Deacon and Manraj Gill completed their 1st season at X country. They both put in solid runs with Manraj in 27th place in 10-32 and Bradley in 33rd place in 10-53.The overall points position was that Manraj finished in 21st place and Bradley in 24th place.

The Senior Ladies race was held over 5km and Ilford were lead home by two athletes producing their best league runs to date; Krystle Balogun finished 7th in 22m 03s and Jenni Sheehan 18th with 23m 21s. They were supported by Bree Nordin, the first F55 category, in 28th clocking 25m 15s and Nicola Hopkinson, giving 100% as usual in 44th with 27m 11s. In the match the Ilford team were an excellent 5th.

The senior mens race was over 8km and there was a good turnout from Ilford AC with Malcom Muir leading the way in 4th spot and first in the M40 group, with 27m 45s. Close behind in 6th was Tom Gardner with 27m 54s while Paul Holloway put in a good run for 45th and 31 21s. Andy Catton was the leading runner in the M60 age category in 33m 26s. Terry Knightley, who is never at home on the country in 89th was home next with 34m 37s and Ian Knight returned to racing following a spell of injury recorded 34m 37s for 96th place and closed the scoring team. Also in action were Steve Cheal (120th 39m 54s) and Matt Maple (125th 44m 00s) The Ilford men placed 9th in the fixture.

For the 2014/15 season Ilford finished with some good results. The men team finished 8th in the 24 strong league and were 3rd in the veterans category. The ladies came home 8th also and in the veteran table placed 11th.

On the individual front Malcolm Muir took the M40 group title and Bree Nordin won the F55 grouping. Other notable performances were Krystle Balogun pacing 5th in the senior ladies and Jenni Sheehan 8th in the same category. Tom Gardner was 8th senior man and Neil Crisp 5th in the M50 age group.
Schools Inter Counties Champs
Reigate 31st January
Another 2 Ilford athletes flying the flag for the club were Ahmed Abdulla and Usamah Patel both representing Essex. After taking a tumble at the start of the race Ahmed worked his way through to finish in 10th place and th 2nd Essex runner home,with Usamah coming home in 26th place. This gave Essex some good packing with 6 to score in the team event. Essex finished in 3rd place.

Serpentine 5k – Hyde Park
Friday 30th January
Ilford M40 veteran Malcolm Muir put in a superb race on Friday to win the Serpentine “Last Friday” 5K race in Hyde Park. In cold, breezy conditions and a
field of 265 runners he led the pack for most of the race, preferring to dictate the pace, but having broken away with Damian Nevins (Harrow) in the last
kilometre he then wisely dropped behind to take the attacking position. Over the last 200 meters Malcolm turned on his now renowned finishing speed to burst
to the front just before the line and take the win by a second in 16m 13s.

Ilford’s superveteran John Batchelor started the race but retired at 1 Km with a bad back.

London Winter 10km
Sunday 1 February

There were over 11500 entrants for the London Winter 10km which runs along the Embankment and around St Pauls Cathedral. For Ilford AC Bill Green recorded 51m 04s and Doris Gaga produced a personal best of 54m 16s after going through 5km in 27 minutes. Both runners placed in the top third of the large field.

Condura Skyway Half Marathon, Manila
Sunday 1 February

Ilford AC’s New Zealand athlete Blair McWhirter, who is currently teaching in the Philippines, took part in a half marathon wearing Ilford colours The race started at 3.30am, which is common in the country to avoid the worst of the weather conditions, however it was still 22C and 78% humidity. Blair was always up with the leading pack going through halfway in 34m 24s before tackling the tougher second half of the course. He crossed the line in 4th place in 1hr 12 mins 25 secs just 14 seconds off a podium place.

  Press Report Ilford AC 27th January 2015  

Jan 272015
 

South of England Cross Country Championships – Brighton

Ilford AC continued to maintain a strong presence in these championships with Club captain Malcolm Muir drawing on his elite troops in the Senior race.
Held over 9 miles at Stanmer Park , Brighton, last Saturday on a hilly but dry course and on a cold crisp day, 5 Ilford athletes travelled down to compete in the race.

The race was won by Ben Tickner of Brighton Phoenix in 50.21. The Ilford athletes’ times were as follows:
1. V40 runner Malcolm Muir – Position 122nd, time 57.05
2. SEN track runner Tom Gardner, Position 129th, time 57.20
3. V45 runner Paul Holloway, Position 434th, time 66.23
4. SEN Sam Rahman, Position 475th, time 67.28
5. SEN Michael Horsey, Position 751st, 80.05
857 runners finished the race.

In the Under 17 race Ahmed Abdulle & Usamah Patel both acquitted themselves well. The eventual winner was Mohammed Mohammed of Southampton ac to whom Ahmed had previosly finished 3rd in the Inter Counties champs . However this time Ilford’s Abdulle was carrying a hamstring injury so held back on the 1st lap of 2 coming through to take 22nd place in 21-49 for the 6k event. Usamah was feeling under the weather yet ran gamely for 80th place 23-27.

Essex Schools X/c champs Colchester 17th January

Ahmed & Usamah both running for Redbridge Schools both put in excellent performances, Ahmed chasing home the eventual winner Soloman of Woodford for 2nd place with Usamah having his best run of the season in 6th place,both athletes have been selected to run for Essex in the English Schools X/c champs.

South of England Indoor Champs Lee valley 18th January

Krystle Bologun making her debut at this level ran a fine race in the heats of the 800m coming 2nd,just missed out on a podium place in the final finishing in 4th

Victoria Park 10k

Ben Jones competed in the Victoria Park 10K in a field of over 500 coming 10th in a time of 36.36.

  Press Report 20th January 2015  

Jan 202015
 

Ilford AC fielded 2 runners in the 25th running of the Benfleet 15 held at Hadleigh Downs on Sunday. On a very challenging multi terrain course comprising hard sections of sea wall contrasting with very boggy marshland and thick mud Bradley Brown was first home for the Club in a respectable time of 2 hours 5 mins 45 seconds for 129th place. The mud was so severe in places that at one point it claimed the running shoes of Peter Spelman who enlisted the help of a marshal to retrieve them. Undeterred by this Spelman still battled on to finish over 30 minutes quicker than last year’s time to dip under the 3 hour mark in 2 hours 56 minutes 58 seconds. This gave him 509th place out of a large field of nearly 600 runners.
The race was won by Woodford Green’s Thomas Beedell in 1hr 31 minutes 31 seconds with St Edmund Pacers Odette Robson narrowly getting the better of Havering AC’s Debbie Appleton to take top spot in the women’s race clocking 1hour 46 minutes 23 seconds with Appleton just over 2 minutes behind.
The overall race record is still held by Ilford’s Amin KoiKai who clocked 1.22.17 in the 6th running of the race back in 1996, a time that no runner has recently been able to even approach.

The previous day Ilford’s Terry Knightley made his parkrun debut when finishing in 10th place out of 221 runners in freezing and windy conditions along the Southend seafront. Over a 3 lap course Knightley also placed first in the 50-54 category age group recording 19 minutes 59 seconds. He was accompanied by his partner Kim Baxter.