Press Report 15th January 2018  

Jan 152018
 

South of England AA Indoor Championships
Lee Valley
13th / 14th January

Three Ilford athletes competed in the South of England champs at the weekend.
Opening their account for the first race of indoor season was Alex Richards in the 800m Heats in 1:59:66 with Jack Mahler recording 52:87 in the 400m Heats and ever present senior lady Krystle Bologun recording 60:86 in the 400m

ESSEX CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE MATCH 3
Writtle
Saturday 13 January

SAMUEL & HICK STAR FOR ILFORD YOUNGSTERS

Ilford AC took a small but quality group of Young athletes to the Penultimate Essex X Country league on Saturday.
First up was the U13s boys race where Ilford had Matthew and Aaron Hick competing.
Matthew got a great start and was up with the leaders from the very beginning . The athlete from Havering pushed the field but Matthew and a Colchester athlete went with him and the 3 athletes pulled away from a quality field.
Coming to the final sprint Hick battled with the Colchester boy to just get beat on the line. However both athletes were only a few seconds behind the winner, who has comfortably won all the Essex races this season. This was Hicks best performance of the season and shows his potential for the future.

Hicks younger Brother Aaron, in his first Essex League race battled his way round the course for a credible 37th position

In the U15s Aaron Samuels, who has won all Essex league and championship races that he has competed in this year, got a great start and led the race from the very beginning. One athlete tried to stay with Aaron but in the last half a mile Aaron powered away to win quite comfortably.
This was great preparation for the Essex schools race next weekend, where Ilford has high hopes for Aaron to win and go to the English Schools finals

The final young athlete was Jordan Hinds in the u17s race. Jordan went off very well but struggled over the last mile, to come in a credible 12th position

 

  Press Report. 8th January 2018  

Jan 082018
 

South of England Indoor Athletics Championships
Lee Valley
6th/7th January

Ilford AC were represented by two lone competitors in Mario Dobrescu and Daniel Popoola at the South of England Indoor Athletics Championships at Lee Valley (weekend of the 6th/7th January).

Both competed in the 60m and 200m sprints with Dobrescu in the U15 Boys and Popoola in the U17 Mens categories respectively.
Popoola set PBs in both events and reached the semi-final in a high quality U17 Men’s 60m event.
Dobrescu impressed in the heats of the 60m and was just edged out of the medals in the final by an agonising 0.01.
Out for revenge in his preferred 200m, he qualified fastest for the final after impressive showings in both the heat and semi-final. In a closely contested race Dobrescu was just edged out and had to settle for the Silver with a huge new PB of 23.28 and in doing so, also broke the Championship record.
Both Dobrescu and Popoola will look to build upon their efforts at next month’s Essex Indoor Championship.

 

ESSEX CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Great Notley Country Park, Braintree
Saturday 6 January

The Essex Cross-Country Championship was held on a chilly afternoon at Great Notley Country Park on Saturday on a traditional country course which the melting overnight frost producing a sticky muddy surface.

In the u/17 girls 5km Championship Jordan Hinds battled hard to finish 17th in 23 mins 20 secs.

 

  Ilford AC Juniors Press Report. 4th December 2017  

Dec 042017
 

Essex Veterans & Junior Cross Country Championships
Saturday 2nd December
Writtle College

 

A small Number of Ilford AC youngsters travelled to the Essex u13s and U15s X Country Champs at Whittle on Saturday.
Ilford ACs Aaron Samuel has had a great X country season so far and In the last 2 weeks has won the English Schools Team Champs, 2nd in the London Youth Games and turned up on Saturday as the  favourite to add the County title to his achievements.
Aaron took the lead from the start with the  Woodford boy sticking on his shoulder for the majority of the race. The 2 boys pulled away from the rest of the field and were still together with 200 metres to go. Aaron then pushed away in the remaining part of the race to be crowned Essex Champion 2017.

The top 4 athletes in each age group scored in the team event and so it was key that Ilfords 3 other athletes pushed themselves.
Jack Wright , running his first Essex Champs for Ilford had a great race. Even though he had a fall during the race he got up to come a real credible 14th place and shows how much potential he has.
Farris Patel, running in trainers as he forgot his spikes, battled his way round in the slippery conditions and used his speed at the end to pass about 5 other athletes in the last 100m, to come 18th.
The 4th Ilford Athlete home was Bradley Deacon, who gets better with every race . Bradley went off very quick and was in the top 20 early on. Bradley maintained his running to once again come a credible 26th.

The great performances from all the boys enabled the Ilford boys to secure a bronze medal for the second year running,  and shows how much this team has moved on.

The only other athlete who competed on Saturday was Matthew Hick in the U13 race. Matthew got a great start and maintained this and was in the top 8 for the majority of the race and eventually came home 10th.  Matthew just missed out in representing Essex in the Inter-counties but hopefully this run gives him belief he can get into these teams in the near future

Overall another successful champs for our small but great Youngsters team

  Junior Press Report 28th November 2017  

Nov 282017
 
ILFORD AC JUNIORS REPORT. NOVEMBER 28th 2017

Ilford young athletes raced at two venues this weekend, four athletes went to the second Essex League match at Hockley, whilst the other two represented their school in the English schools cup.

Freezing cold conditions met the athletes at Hockley, however by the time the races got underway the frost had melted and the ground was firm underfoot. Ilford had three athletes lining up for the U15 boys race, and all of them made very positive starts. At the end of the small lap  Farris Patel was in 5th place, with Jak Wright just behind in 7th and Bradley Deacon  having a great run inside the top 20. The larger lap took the athletes onto the hillier parts of the course and whilst Farris and Jak had lost a few places Bradley was moving through the field. As they came out woods for the final sprint to the finish Farris showed his track speed and finished and excellent 7th, Jak was close behind in 9th place. Bradley had his best ever run in an Essex League for a brilliant 15th.

Jordan Hinds was in the U17 girls race, she has been experimenting a bit with her starts this season, and this was one of her slower starts. By the end of the first lap she was nicely positioned and was ready for the hills. Her recent hard training and hill work paid over in the second lap and she was able to move through to take a seasons best place of 15th.

Meanwhile Aaron Samuels and Matthew Hick both represented their schools in the English Schools cup. Both have had to go through 2 preliminary rounds to make the final ,where the top 30 schools in the country compete for both the individual and team titles ,out of more than 600 schools that originally started.

Aaron completed in the u15s and made a promising start and kept with the leaders during the first 2k.Aaron then pushed himself more towards the leaders and took the lead with about 600m to go and powered away from a top quality field to win the individual English schools team title

This is a great achievement from the Ilford athlete who gets better with every race

Matthew Hick competed in the U13s race in another very competitive race and even though he got a bad start he worked through the field to come in the 50s out of a large field and was part of his school team who ended up coming second in the team event out of the 30 schools competing

Great performances by all our youngsters in preparation for the Essex champs next weekend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Press Report 20th November 2017  

Nov 202017
 

London Youth Games Championship
Parliament Hill
Saturday 18th November

Ilford young athletes continued their cross country season by representing their boroughs at the London Youth Games championship held at Parliament Hill fields last Saturday. Ilford had three runners representing Redbridge, two representing Havering and one Barking and Dagenham.

First up were the U15 boys in which Ilford had four runners, conditions were fairly firm under foot and the four boys all made good starts and were well positioned at the top of the first hill. Over the next mile Aaron Samuel closed in on the leaders and was in the top three at around half way. Farris Patel and Jak Wright were having their own battle back in the 30’s. Bradley Deacon had made a more aggressive start and was also moving through the field. Into the final part of the course Mohammed Ali of Ealing had broken away from the field, but Aaron had a storming second half of the race to finish in a brilliant second place. Farris won his personal battle with Jak to take 28th place, with Jak just behind in 35th. Bradley was rewarded for all his recent hard training with 79th place and improvement of over 60 places compared to the same race last year.

Next up was Matthew Hick in the U13 boys, running for Havering. Matthew had raced for his school the day before so it was always going to be tough for him, but he acquitted himself well. After a slow start he finally managed to get into his running and was passing people all the way down the home straight to eventually finish 48th.

Last up was Jordan Hinds in the U17 girls, competing for Redbridge, having been waiting almost 3.5 hours for her race to start, Jordan struggled to get going in the early stages of the race, but her strength gained in her recent training meant she was always moving through the field. She eventually finished in 54th place and although a little disappointed, she had plenty left for the bigger races coming up