Press Report 29th October 2018  

Oct 292018
 

Essex League
Hockley
27th October 2018

JUNIORS

After some success with recent relays, Ilford young athletes were ready to go at the first cross country race at Hockley last weekend, with added incentive of the first six finishers being chosen to run for Essex at the Southern Inter counties.

First up were the U13’s, Ilford’s two runners were Joseph Grange and Aaron Hick, both of whom are U11 and therefore giving over two years to some of the other runners. In the circumstances that both had very good runs, Aaron started steadily and worked his way through to a very good 47th. Joseph was a bit more ambitious and despite a mid race fall came home in 19th place. Which we believe was first U11 competitor.

Next up were the U15 boys with Matthew Hick being the only Ilford runner, this was Matthews first run of the season and he struggled a bit with the early pace, but as the race got going he got into his stride and was moving through the field. He eventually finished 35th, but expressed some disappointment.

Jordan Hinds had a day off from her A level studies to compete in the U17/U20 women’s race and she maintained a steady pace throughout  and was picking off other runners the whole way to eventually finish 25th.

The final race saw four runners take part in the U17 men’s race, which was combined with the senior women. For three of the Ilford runners this was their first race over the longer 6k distance. After the initial charge a group of 10 athletes broke away and this include Aaron Samuel and Mungo Prior of Ilford, with Farris Patel and Bradley Deacon in the chasing pack. Over the rest of the first lap the gradually whittled down until there was only four left of which Aaron was one. On the second lap Aaron was still content to take his time, until eventually making a move with half a mile to go, which was decisive and earned him victory by 11 seconds from Leon Wheeler of Thurrock. After missing most of last season with injury Mungo’s 10th place finish was a welcome return to form. Farris was rewarded for his recent hard training with an excellent 12th place. Bradley who picked a bit of a niggle in training this week finished very strongly for a very good 22nd place.
The total team points of 45 were enough to win the team event.

 

  Press Report 22nd October 2018  

Oct 222018
 
South of England XC Champs
Wormwood Scrubs
20th October

Ilford ACs under 17s team competed in the Southern England X country champs at Wormwood Scrubs last weekend.

Full of confidence after their exciting win in the recent Essex champs, the boys had high hopes of doing well. It shows the strength of the team that Ilford are able to replace a class athlete like Jak Wright, who was unavailable, with another class athlete in Farris Patel.

Over 30 teams from all over Southern England participated in the race .Farris Patel ran the first leg and ran a great leg to run the 20th fastest time of the day ,bringing Ilford into 10th position, in a time of 11.02
Mungo Prior chased down 3 of the athletes in front of him, bringing Ilford into 7th place, running 11:01,19th fastest time of the day.
Last leg was Aaron Samuel ,who flew round the course in a time of 10:21.Aaron passed 3 teams in front of him but just ran out of time to catch the third placed team.
Aaron ran 5th fastest time of the day, to bring Ilford home in 4th position.

Even though the boys were disappointed not to win a medal, it was a great achievement to see Ilford challenging all these big teams for medals.
Roll on the National champs in 2 weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Press Report 1st October 2018  

Oct 012018
 

Essex County Relay Champs
Halstead Essex
Saturday 29th September

Ilford AC youngsters win the Essex XC relays U17

A stunning run by Ilford youngsters on saturday brought them home first to be crowned Essex champions beating some high quality teams

Jak Wright ,Mungo Prior and Aaron Samuels all ran superb on the day and were worthy winners of their title.

  Press Report Monday 24th September 2018  

Sep 242018
 

Southern Counties Road Relays
Crystal Palace
Sunday 23rd September

 

On a wet day at Crystal Palace, Ilford AC u17s competed in the Southern Counties road relays over 4.5km. This is the first time for many years Ilford AC have been in a position to enter a team in this event. Three of the team have just moved up to the u17 group so have another year left in the age group..The  whole team performed extremely well so early in the season and came 15th out of 49 top class teams performing

First leg saw Mungo Prior run a very consistent leg in 17.02 to bring the team home in around 28th . Next up was Farris Patel, who slightly struggled over the longer distance, but still performed well in achieving 17.52 to come in about 30th. Aaron Samuels then ran the second fastest leg out of all the athletes competing on the third leg and brought Ilford back into 15th position, with a time of 16.00. Jak Wright ran a great last leg to maintain that position in a time of 16.50 and bring Ilford home in 15th position.

Ilford were the first Essex team home so good preparation for next week Essex Relays

  Press Report. August 14th  

Aug 142018
 

South of England Champs
Lee Valley
Saturday and Sunday 11th/12th August

Saturday 11th August

Three  Ilford Youngsters competed in the South of England Champs over the weekend.
First up on Saturday was Farris Patel in the 800m, there were three heats and qualifying was tough with only the first two going into the final. Farris was in heat three and positioned himself in a great position the whole way, but unfortunately, in the home straight was unable to get a qualifying spot  and his time of 2.01.58 was not one of the fastest losers.
Aaron Samuel was in the 1500m which had two heats , Aaron was up with the leaders for the first two laps, but was slightly boxed in, but as the bell approached he got himself out and kicked with 300m to go, which took him clear of the field and enabled him to ease up down the home straight and qualify in second place

Sunday 12th August
Next day saw Anthony George defending his Triple jump title, he started well with a very good jump of 12.88, but unfortunately could not improve on this as the competition went on and had to settle for 5th place.
Later in the day Aaron was back for the 1500m final. Will Mahoney of Norwich shot into the lead and Aaron went with him, Mahoney set a fast pace and by the end of the  first lap reached in 63 secs only 7 athletes were in contention. The pattern remained the same as they approached 800m, but one further athlete had dropped away. Approaching the bell  the Norwich athlete and Aaron had opened up a slight gap on the rest of the field. Aaron left it slightly later than the heat and kicked with 250 to go and opened and gap, he continued to apply the speed and moved away to claim his first southern title in a winning time of 4.04.