• Newman Hilly 5 mile Race:-

    No less than 30 athletes from the host club contested Ilford AC's Newman Hilly 5 mile "off road race"  held on the paths and tracks of Hainault Forest on Wednesday night. Iain Campbell once again proved to be the soup of the day as he broke away from his pursuers towards the end of the first of the 2 demanding laps. Campbell had built up a 50 metre lead as he attacked the last hill towards the finish leaving teammate Malcolm Muir to battle with  Woodford Green's Matt Flannelly for 2nd place. The habitually garrulous Flannelly had employed his normal  tactic of talking all the way round in an effort to psyche the Ilford Man out but was left chewing on his words as Muir turned on the gas in the final 100metres.

    International triathlete Karen Sindall expectedly took the women's race in a time of 31.07 and 10th place overall. East London's Karen Levenson was 2nd and Ilford's Bree Nordin 3rd.Snooker ace Ronnie "the Rocket" O'sullivan lived up to his nickname blasting around the course to finish in a fine 6th position recording 30mins 21secs.

    The race held in memory of Newman Sargent attracted over 100 entrants raising some £500 for St Francis Hospice. Prizes were presented afterwards by Club preseident Wes Clarke. Ilford now look forward to a similar race, a yacht handicap, the brainchild of race director Peter Spelman, to be held over the same course in 2 weeks time.  

    Ilford times and positions:- 1st Iain Campbell 27.33, 2nd Malcolm Muir 27.53, 7th Matt Maple 30.34, 10th Karen Sindall 31.07, 15th Abdi Berleen 32.25, 22nd Alan Lattimore 34.11, 23rd John Mackenzie 34.22, 25th Darren Botterill 35.03, 27th Bree Nordin 35.24, 28th Rohan Alexander 35.39, 30th Iain MacDonald 36.32, 34th Keelie Brooks 37.07, 38th Ray Rawlinson 37.44, 39th Peter Spelman 37.51, 40th Pauline Tester 37.56, 41st Gary Webb 38.05, 42n2 Paul King 38.18, 46th Henry Ricketts 38.26, 48th Ken Hylton 38.51, 49th Sally Gillam 38.56, 53rd Owen Phipps 39.26, 67th  Pam Jones 41.09, 68th Micky Webb 41.18, 73rdVincent Hehir 43.06, 76th Joan De'ath 43.41, 73rd Gerry Pells 44.12, 86th Pete Whiting 49.21.

     
  • Great Bentley 5 mile road race 

    On Friday evening the Club's General Secretary Sally Gillam ran in the Great Bentley 5 mile road race. Sally had an excellent run and succeeded in lowering her 5 mile personal best yet again by clocking 36mins and 38seconds. 

     
  • Southern Men's League - Basingstoke

    Ilford AC reinforced their mid table position in the Southern Mens League 1st Division, with a battling performance for 3rd place in Basingstoke. After a rushed start due to a combination of changes to the times of early events and congestion on the M25, the team mustered seven personal bests, including top performances from under 17 sprint duo Aaron Balogun and Gary Smallman, this time excelling in the jumps, with a 6.39m long jump and 11.98m triple jump respectively. Jason Bartley added some much needed talent in the high jump with 1.70m, while Sol Anwar showed some form in the shot putt to come first with 13.29m.
     
    The other star performers were Ekow Quagraine who returned to the team after his exams with two second places in the 100m and 200m (11.4s and 23.3s respectively) and Sam Malekout who worked his way back to fitness with two fine pbs in the long jump and triple jump (5.75m and 11.65m).  Craig Burrow managed to complete his usual multitude of events, usually three at a time (110mh - 24.3, 400mh - 98.6, shot - 11.55m, discus - 36.45m, javelin - 45.65m, hammer - 35m).  Malcolm Muir finally managed to impose his position as top steeplechaser beating Maple with a personal best performance of 10:33.9, while former president Tony Nixon belied his undisclosed years to take on and beat some young upstarts in a fine display of sprint finishing, albeit in a time well over a minute behind his best from his 1970s peak.
    Ilford has two matches left against tough competition on 30th July and their grand finale at Cricklefields on the 30th August (all support will be welcome).
    Other results are: Balogun (100m -
    11.3s, 200m - 22.8s), Gary Smallman (400m - 50.9s, high jump - 1.65m), Jon
    Manning (400m - 52.5s), John MacDonald (800m - 2:04.5, 1500m - 4:22.5),
    Robert Nixon (800m - 2:09.0, 400m hurdles - 71.0s), Tony Nixon (1500m -
    5:09.4), Malcolm Muir (5000m - 16:26.5), Matthew Maple (5000m - 17:02.4,
    3000m SC - 10:37.9), Peter Whiting (pole vault - 1.40m, 110mh - 27.6s,
    javelin - 28.21m), Sam Malekout (pole vault - 1.40m), Sol Anwar (discus -
    37.32), 4x100m - 45.7, 4x400m - 3:51.3.

     
  • Felstead 10k

         The 7th running of the Felstead "Victory" 10k took place in blisteringly hot conditions on Sunday. Ilford AC's Terry Knightley, who won the inaugural race in 1999, was some 3 minutes off his winning time but nevertheless ran well to record 37 minutes 15secs and 10th place. Springfield Striders Paul Dobson emerged as the winner on this occasion in a time of 34.15 just one second quicker than Knightleys 1999 time..

    Bree Nordin won the 1st Female Vet 45 trophy in 43 minutes 48 seconds and the evergreen Pam Jones won the 1st Female Vet 55 Trophy in 48 Minutes 33 Seconds

    SCVAC League - Hemel Henstead

    Monday Evening witnessed a great efford by the Ilford Ac's  veteran section  when the men's squad narrowly failed to win the final match  of the Southern Counties Vets League at Hemel Hemstead. Some heavy traffic on the M25  and injuries to key personnel in the over 50s section conspired to deprive the club of crucial points against a very strong Barnet and District team. The final score of Barnet 138 1/2  points to Ilford's 134 1/2 points reflected just how close the tussle was.

    Performances of note were fine wins for both Iain Campbell and John Batchelor in their respective 3000metre races. There were also wins for Lee Richards in the 200 metre B string and Roger Honey in the pole vault. The Club's walking section produced an excellent clean sweep in the 2000m walk with Steve Allen and Mike Hinton taking the honours.

    Results
    200m A Jones 25.6 2nd, L Richards 26.4 1st, R Honey 27.7 4th, J McNamee 30.0 4th
    800m N Keane 2.19.8 5th, M Jenkins 2.29.4 6th, J Batchelor 2.41.2 4th
    2000m walk S Allen 10.33.6 1st, M Hinton 11.12.2 1st
    3000m I Campbell 9.20.7 1st, N Keane 10.48.8 5th, J Batchelor 11.18.4 1st
    4 x 200 relay Ilford 1.46.7 2nd
    Pole Vault M Jenkins 2.40 3rd, R Honey 2.30 1st
    Javelin J Allingham 39.63 3rd, R Honey 30.18 2nd, J McNamee 31.04 3rd
    High Jump M Jenkins 1.35 4th, R Honey 1.20 5th=
    Long Jump A Jones 5.47 3rd, R Honey 4.67 2nd