-
Press Report 18th February 2008
Some beautiful weather with some balmy spring sunshine greeted nearly 200 competitors in the historic running of the Essex 20 mile road championships held round the country roads and environs of Great Bromley near Colchester on Sunday. Ilford AC's premier runner Malcolm Muir took advantage of the ideal running conditions to improve his personal best by 1 second charging up the hill at the finish to record 5th place overall but just missing out on an Essex medal with an excellent time of 1.56.13. He was ably supported by veteran campaigner Neil Crisp who wisely attached himself to a hard working group including the 3 lead women. With everyone taking their turn to share the load over the gruelling 20 miles Crisp came through to finish in 2hrs 17.34, 3 minutes ahead of his target time of 2hrs.20. Another enjoying an excellent run was newcomer Gurdip Dhami, deep in London Marathon training and having his first ever outing over the distance. Dhami, yet another athlete to emerge from Ilford's excellent "harriers" group, should be well pleased with clocking 2hrs 40.41 confessed to feeling somewhat shattered afterwards.
The
men's
lead witnessed
a
titanic
battle
between Bertie
Powell
of
Woodford
Green
and
Billericay's
Crispian
Bloomfield.
Despite
several
attempts
by
Powell
to drop
Bloomfield
it was
the Billericay
man's
strength
and
persistence
that won
the day
with
both
returning
excellent
times well
under
1hr 50
mins.Ilford's already depleted ladies squad saw Bree Nordin battling against a painful pulled muscle in her abdomen which was hindering her breathing for most of the race. After going with the early charge she was forced to slow to training pace but nevertheless bravely completed a 2.42.49 clocking about 20 minutes adrift of her normal expected time. Another casualty was Sally Gillam who was always 50-50 to start the race suffering from a painful knee injury. After wisely starting conservatively she went through the 8 miles mark untroubled but after deciding to push on a bit the knee was complaining by 10 miles forcing her to retire before doing any further damage. The overall womens race saw Springfield's Striders dominating with Tracey Ransom emerging out of the pack to take the spoils and Maxine Oxlade a not too distant third.Further north Ilford's duo of Robin and Nikki McNelis were competing in the 42nd running of Falkirk Victoria Harriers "Round the Houses" 10k. Robin posted an impressive time of 36.26 whilst Nikki returned to racing with 48.58.