Ilford AC athletes stormed the Pitsea PB 5 mile road race held on the roads outside Basildon’s Gloucester Park on Sunday.  Karen Sindall completed her second win in as many weeks to defeat Winchester’s Shona Crombie-Hicks with yet another emphatic display of power running. The race with its history of mishaps once again passed not without incident as athletes confused the starting hooter with that of the fun causing some 13 seconds of inactivity before the organizer shouted “GO GO GO”. Despite this and the damp and drizzly conditions Sindall still managed to collect the race time bonus by dipping under 29 minutes with a 28minutes 56 seconds clocking which gave her 7^th place overall. She led a dominant women’s team including Nicola Hopkinson (36.22), Dianne Crisp (38.22) to victory in 3 woman per team race with septuagenarian Pam Jones amazingly picking up 3^rd prize in the women over 55s with 40.59. 

The men’s squad matched the women with victory in the 3 men per team race with Malcolm Muir leading them home in 2^nd spot overall with an excellent time of 26.46. Terry Knightley took the top veteran spoils finishing in 29.06 from Neil Crisp 30.34. Andy Catton put up a good fight in the over 50’s race but with limited training of late finally had to settle for 2^nd spot some 14 seconds adrift of the winner in 30.51. The race was won by Billericay’s Crispian Bloomfield!!

Elsewhere two very hardy Ilford athletes also battled the difficult conditions in Sunday’s Halstead Essex Marathon. Old stager Ian Wilson put in a very good performance to finish 29^th in 3hrs 8mins and 36 seconds whilst Harriers newcomer Bagesh Katechia completed his first race for the club in 4hrs 3mins 56 seconds for 211^th place.

The club now look forward to further success in next Sundays Essex AAAs 10 mile road championships which are to be held at Great Baddow, Chelmsford.

Essex Track and Field Championships – Days 2 and 3 – Report by Paul Cheal

Ilford AC had 13 athletes competing on day 2 & 9 athletes competing on day 3 in what can only be described as conditions that started of ok on Saturday but gradually went down hill throughout the weekend. Ilford was blessed with some very good and outstanding performances producing 2 GOLD MEDALS, 2 SILVER & 1 BRONZE together with some frustrating performances and heartbreaking ones.

Day 2

At the start of Day 2 Kurtland Martyr took part in the U/17 Men hammer and recorded a PB with - 22m 88cm. Joshua Daly although hampered by slight injury did the U/15 Boys long jump and leaped to - 3m 95cm. Alex Richards in the U/15 Boys 800m again produced a good performance coming home with a PB time of - 2m 25.9s but unfortunately did not make it to the final. Also in the 800m this time in the U/17 Men Bakr Al-Akku ran a time just outside his PB with - 2m 12.16s but did not progress from his heat. He also did the 400m and ran - 55.72s in his heat. Jerrell Alleyne & Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran the 100m in the U/15 Boys heats with Jerrell qualifying for the semis with - 12.9s and Nethaneel doing the same with - 12.5s to equal his PB. Jerrell ran faster in his semi with - 12.8s but did not progress to final, however Nethaneel ran 12.6s in his heat and did qualify for final. In the final he produced his best time and in a very competitive and fast time was only able to finish 8th but in a new PB with - 12.28s. Sarah Kigozi in the U/17 Women ran the 100m with 13.24s in semi final heat to progress to final. Sarah ran slightly slower in the final to finish around 5th or 6th (TBC) with - 13.3s. Others to take part in the 100m were Ozi Nzeako and Simeon Stuart in the U/17 Men with Simeon recording - 12.50s and Ozi a PB with - 12.28s but both did not progress. In the Junior Men, Nathaniel Senior and Gary Madigan competed, Nathaniel ran 12.93s and Gary ran a good time of - 11.87 to qualify for final. In the final he was very unlucky to finish just outside the medal places with a faster time than his heat of - 11.7s. Last in the 100m was Rachel Giwa in the Junior Women. In a straight final Rachel produced a fine performance to push all the way to the line being piped by 7 hundredths of a second with - 12.41s and SILVER MEDAL. Last to compete in the Junior Men was Aaron Balogun who did the 400m. His semi-final heat was very impressive coming home with - 49.9s to qualify for the final. In the final he ran the race slightly differently and although looking to struggle towards the end was able to hold on to a BRONZE MEDAL with a faster time of - 49.6s.

Day 3

On day 3 there was more success. In the throws there were mixed results though. Youcef Zatat in the U/15 Boys Shot unfortunately threw below par and frustration was felt as he managed 8th place overall with - 8m 80cm which is over 1m 30cm under his PB. This continued in the U/17 Men Javelin with Andy Carle. With a medal at his mercy unfortunately he was fouled out after three throws and unable to continue any further in the contest, a lesson that I believe he can learn from in the future. Charlotte Deacon in the U/17 Women shot is coming back to form. She finished in a higher position than last year with a distance of - 8m 20cm so improvement there. Finally Rob Legon not to be overawed by the other competitors just miss out on the coaches target of 10m in the U/17 Men shot but still managed a PB of - 9m 84cm. Simeon Stuart continues to grow in the event of Long Jump and this was evident when he won GOLD MEDAL with a very impressive jump of - 6m 27cm. Nathaniel Senior also produced a magnificent performance in the Junior Men Triple Jump not only recording a PB with - 13m 20cm but with 1st place and a GOLD MEDAL. He also did the Junior Men Long Jump with a distance of - 5m 83cm. Ozi Nzeako U/17 Men also competed in both events with - 5m 65 in the Long Jump and 11m 76 in the Triple Jump. In the Junior Men 200m Aaron Balogun and Gary Madigan competed. Gary ran well in his heat with - 23.57s to qualify as a fastest loser whilst Aaron stormed away to victory in his heat with - 22.30s. In the final Gary finished around 6th (TBC) whilst Aaron had a battle all the way to be just piped to the line with - 22.46s and SILVER MEDAL. Final athlete to compete was Lydia Hall in the U/17 Women 300m. Lydia having to compete in the pouring rain ran a superb race to come home 3rd in her heat of 2 with a PB of - 42.87s which in fact was the 3rd fastest of all athletes. In buoyant mood Lydia did the final and simply blew some of he opponents round the bend and was on course for a medal up the home straight. Unfortunately tragedy struck just yards from the line as she was desperately trying to hold on to 3rd which was on the cards she took a fall. It was a great shame and she felt annoyed and somewhat bruised, but the potential is most definitely there.

These athletes will now re group after a long weekend and look forward to the next meeting this coming Saturday and Sunday in the Southern Men's Meeting at Haringey and UKYAL Meeting at Home.