Ilford AC's Malcolm Muir's plea of "Give me Mud"  in last week's intercounties cross country

was answered this  Saturday afternoon when he took the Orion 15 mile race by the scruff of the neck to record a famous victory in an excellent time of 1 hr 33 minutes 12 seconds. On this notoriously tough course comprising of very demanding hills and strength sapping muddy sections,  Muir confessed he was only intending to do a training running in preparation for next month's London Marathon, a fact born out by his choice of footwear,  ordinary trainers  instead of cross country shoes. With the rain pouring down in the late afternoon Muir skated over the mud to get the better of  Barnet's Grant Ramsay, recently 3rd in the Finchley 20, and Springfield Strider's Gary Chandler who always seems to go better on the road.

 

In the same race Bree Nordin ran cautiously to record 2hrs 5mins 4 secs for 6th in the women's race  Just behind Peter Spelman capped an excellent performance clocking 2hrs 5mins and 44 secs for 101st. Sally Gillam was second woman home for Ilford but found the going not to her liking and was disappointed with her time of 2hrs 31 mins 43secs which gave her 173rd overall. Emma Woodward is fast gaining experience at the longer distances and chipped in with 2hrs 47mins 16secs to close 3rd place for the women's team.

 

Club stalwart and Super veteran Pam Jones swapped the grey skies and Icy winds of England with the 18 inches of snow, beautiful sunshine and blue skies of Austria when competing in Linz along the banks of the Danube in the world Indoor Masters Championships last weekend,

Pam now in her 70th year finished  5th in the 3.000m in 14m 39s. Pam later described the race as the usual chaos with the  results still under correction.  Some athletes ran a lap too many while others ran a lap too short resulting in a Canadian and USA athlete nearly coming to blows. The  70's winner was placed 2nd when everyone knew she had won. Pam's own lap counter told her she had 1  to go when she knew she had 2 so she carried on. ,Pam also finished 5th in the cross-country on a very rutted and icy course resulting in an injury due to her wearing 12mm spikes which didnt penetrate the surface. Nevertheless Pam had recovered enough to contest the 1500m where once again she managed 5th place despite the pain.