Press report 18th November 2014  

Nov 182014
 

LONDON YOUTH GAMES X COUNTRY CHAMPS PARLIAMENT HILL

Saturday 15th November
Over 1000 young Londoners descended on Parliament Hill last Saturday for the first event of the new Balfour Beatty London Youth Games season. The cross country competitions featured representatives from all 33 London borough teams, including several national and regional champions.

A superb run by Ilford AC’s Ahmed Abdulle in the under 17s race saw him narrowly missing out on victory in a sprint finish but was later given 1st place when officials disqualified the original winner for being a over aged runner. Ahmed’s winning time was 17-10 some 30 seconds in hand of the next runner, and relegating the pre race favourite and Middlesex Champion to 6th. Usamah Patel found the going tough and had to settle for 22nd place in 18-53, with Jack Maher in 93rd place in 21-22. In the u/13 boys race Manraj Gill was placed 81st in 8-49. These 4 athletes competed for Redbridge in the team event
London 2012 Olympic marathon runner Scott Overall, a former London Youth Games competitor, attended to present the medals.

ESSEX X COUNTRY LEAGUE
Saturday 15th November
15 athletes from Ilford AC turned out for the 2nd round of the Essex Cross Country League held at Chelmsford’s Highlands Park on Saturday. Over 200 runners lined up for the men’s race with the in-form Kevin Newell leading the squad home in 41st just ahead of veteran Steve Philcox in 44th. Kevin Wotton and Ben Jones were locked together in 71st and 72nd respectively followed by Neil Crisp,80th, and Sam Rahman, 85th, completing the scorers.
The 10 man squad was completed by Andy Catton, 102nd,Steve Parker, 174th, Bradley Brown, 175th, and Steve Cheal, 188th. The race was won by the veteran class act Adrian Mussett of Colchester Harriers. The Ilford men placed 9th out of 22 competing teams.
The women went one better placing 8th with Krystle Balogun heading the team in 24th. She was pushed hard all the way by a great run from Jenni Sheehan who was only 13 seconds behind at the finish. Top veteran Bree Nordin was next home placing 46th and Nicola Hopkinson closed in 73rd. Doris Gaga placed 123rd in her first outing over the country. There were 126 women finishers with Havering’s Lauren Deadman taking top spot.

Ilford had 3 young athletes in the junior races, brother & sister Matthew & Isabella Hick and Bradley Deacon.
Matthew had an excellent race in the u/11’s finishing in 3rd place. Isabella competed in the u/13 girls race and put in a solid run for 44th place with Bradley in the u/13 boys race recording his best performance to date with 24th place.

  Press Report 11th November 2014  

Nov 112014
 

Three runners from Ilford AC guested in the second match of this winters Chingford League, held on the challenging 5k circuit of the Redbridge Cycle Circuit at Hog Hill, Hainault last Tuesday. Kevin Newell was best placed of the trio in the three lap race in 24th spot out of 174 finishers in 18 mins 05 secs, with Sam Rahman recording 18m 21s in 32nd. Further back was Rob Sargent placing 137th with 24m 21s

At the previous week’s Friday’s Serpentine Last Friday 5K race Ilford had John Batchelor and Kevin Newell in the starting line-up.
Most notable for 23C temperature and brilliant sunshine on 31st October, the race was run over the two-lap Christmas course (caused by the ghastly “Winter Wonderland” construction on the normal start/finish place). The start was very congested and resulted in Kevin Newell taking a painful tumble early on. Despite this and the fact that he was recovering from the Dublin Marathon only five days earlier, his highly creditable run round in 17:46 gave him 18th place out of the 240 runners, though on fresh and unbloodied legs a top four or five would have been achievable.

In his own words John Batchelor “plodded round my first road race since last February in 21:09, placing 94th, though 4th on the age-graded rankings as leading M70. Not great, not a disaster, but hopefully an indication of better races to come, though unlikely to be in better weather! “

  Press Report 4th November 2014  

Nov 042014
 

Billericay 10k – Sunday 2nd November 2014

Double Gold For Ilford Athletic Club at The Billericay Striders 10K Road Race !

The Only Two Ilford Athletic Club members in a Field of Well Over 750 Entrants came away with respective Winners Trophies in their age categories at The Billericay Striders 10K Rad Race on Sunday.

Held in Windy but cool conditions, Stephen Philcox outsprinted local Legend, John Barker of Thrift Green Trotters, to Win The Male Over 40’s Veteran Trophy in 10th Place in a time of 36 Minutes and 47 seconds. He was Followed by Multiple Essex County Medallist, Terry Knightley, in 26th Position in 39 minutes and 57 seconds as he won the Male Over 50’s Veteran Trophy for the 3rd Time in 4 years.

The Race was won by Paul Whittaker of Southend On Sea Athletic Club in a new course record of 31 minutes and 17 seconds.

Templeton 10 Miles Dundee – 2nd November 2014
North of the Border siblings Malcolm and Carol Muir took part in the Templeton 10miles, an event organised by Dundee Road Runners.
On a very demanding hilly anti-clockwise loop Malcolm showed great form battling strong winds to come home 2nd in a great time of 56.54 only 7 seconds behind the winner. Carol finished in 1 hour 43 min 25 seconds.

  Press Report 28th October 2014  

Oct 282014
 

Dublin Marathon
Monday 27th October 2014
Ilford AC.s Kevin Newell and Sam Rahman were among an estimated 14,000 runners from 47 countries in the 35th running of Sunday’s Dublin Marathon. The breezy conditions and few extra hills thrown in this year following a course change due to the city-centre Luas works proved no obstacle to Newell as he stormed round the 26.2miles in a new personal best of 2hrs 48 minutes and 57 seconds for an impressive 81st place.
Sam Rahman was a harsh judge of his own performance confessing to be slightly disappointed with his own run and struggled in comparison but nevertheless returned 2hours 57. 59 a time that many runners would be delighted with and good enough for 233rd place overall.
The smell of deep heat and tiger balm wafting through the patchy drizzle surrounding the Georgian streets of the Capital as runners set off in 3 waves this year to ease the normal congestion at the start. Newell, in the form of his life, judged his race to perfection setting off steady with a first 10k split of 40.10 negotiating the gusty conditions of  Phoenix Park and going through halfway in 1.23.14 passing Brickfields Park. Maintaining good pace he then went through 30kin 1.58.51 before tackling the aptly named Heartbreak Hill on the Roebuck Road at 22 miles. It was then just a turn for home at University College for the last few miles leading to a jubilant finish at Merrion Square at an average pace of 6min 27 sec per mile.
Kenya’s Eliud Too was the overall winner in 2.14.48whilst the ageless Irish national champion Maria McCambridge just failed to defend her ladies title being just edged out, by a mere four seconds, behind another Kenyan, Esther Wanjiru Macharia. However in the process, McCambridge defied wind, hills and age, to lower her personal best time by a minute, to 2:34:19.

GREENVILLE RUNFEST 10km
Saturday 25 October
Ilford AC’s Rob Sargeant took the opportunity to take part in the annual Runfest in Greenville South Carolina while on his annual visit to the local Greenville Track Club. The running festival consists of 4 races; marathon. half-marathon,10 km and 5km and totals over 2000 entries. Rob ran in the 10km over a challenging course, to be expected in a town nestled in the foothills of the great Smokey mountains, and on a perfect morning for running was pleased to cross the finish line, by homeplate in the local baseball stadium,in 47 mins 37 secs to place 30th overall and win the M60 category trophy.

 

  Press Report 21st October 2014  

Oct 212014
 

Essex Cross Country League
Thurrock 18/10/2014

Ilford AC opened their Cross Country season at One Tree Hill, Thurrock, on Saturday with a superb run by Ahmed Abdulle who showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field in the Under 17s race. He was well supported by Usamah Patel, 25th, and Jack Maher 39th. Three other young athletes also performed well in the under 13 boys race with Manraj Gill leading the trio home in 10th, Arun Manget in 12thand Bradley Deacon in 29th. There were 40 finishers in both races.

Tom Gardner was the leading Ilford runner in the senior men’s race managing 8th place in a top class field of 162 runners. Malcolm Muir was top male vet of the day finishing in 12th place ahead of Steve Philcox, 34th, Kevin Wotton, 58th, and Neil Crisp 69th.Club stalwart Tony Nixon answered the call to close a scoring team by once again donning his cross country spikes occupying 125th place placing the club 8th out of 20competing teams.The ladies squad faired one place higher in 7th place out of 20 teams were once again led home by Krystle Balogun in 17th position. Jenni Sheehan put in an excellent effort for 29th place with top over 55 Bree Nordin,
42nd, and Dianne Crisp, 58th, completing the scorers. The evergreen Pam Jones was the only competitor in the over 75 category coming home in 85th. There were 89 finishers.

Cabbage Patch 10Miles
Twickenham 19/10/2014

On a bright breezy morning four ilford athletes made the trip to Twickenham for
the annual Cabbage Patch 10 mile road race, which regularly brings out the big
guns from Kenya due to the cash prizes on offer!
First home for ilford was Kevin Newell who continued his good form with a steady 58.36 (42nd) and then came Sam Rahman in a new personal best of 59.10 (52nd) both looking good ahead of next weeks Dublin Marathon, next inwas Nicola Chester who smashed her previous best by over three minutes in a time of 93.49 (1209th) then came Carol Muir in a time of 94.35 (1246th), the race was won by Loitarakwai Olengurisi in a time of 49.35 scooping the £1000 first prize!
1st lady was Britain’s Steph Twell!