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Press Report 25th February 2008
The English National Cross Country Championships dominated an otherwise fairly quiet weekend as 4 athletes from Ilford AC made the trip to Alton Towers home of midlands club Staffordshire Moorlands AC. Over 1200 athletes competing in the senior men's race found a hilly course of 12K with enough ups and downs to rival the nearby theme park rides.
Leading the Ilford team was Midlands based Rob Nixon who has recently overcome some crippling injuries and is starting to show his superlative form of 4 years ago. Running over distance, he started off strongly but admitted to finding the length of the course challenging and faded a little towards the end to finish 207th. However, as an 800 and 1500m runner, Nixon exclaimed that he was delighted with his outing and was looking forward to challenging his best times over more familiar terrain and distances in the Summer.
Malcolm
Muir is
a
veteran
of the
race and
took a
steady
start as
rivals
raced
off
ahead.
With a
ferocious
hill
greeting
the
runners
on each
of the
three
laps,
which
owed
much in
appearance
to the
roller
coasters
which
adorned
the
skyline,
Malcolm
used his
strength
on the
long
climb as
he
surged
past
tired
athletes
and
carved
through
the
field to
rise to
an
eventual
211th
position.
He
stated
that he
was
disappointed
after
the race
as he
had
‘mistimed
the
finish
and
could’ve
passed
another
dozen
people
if he
knew it
was
going to
arrive
so
soon’.
Muir
has
slowly
returned
to the
form
that
took him
to a
series
of
personal
bests at
the end
of last
year and
is
surely
looking
forward
to an
exciting
year of
road and
track
races.
Another Ilford athlete who will be looking forward to an exciting Summer ahead is Darren Bottrill who was looking to improve on his disappointing 704th place last year. With massive strides in his performance, it was no surprise to see him vying with runners previously far his superior to eventually finish 382nd.
Lastly but by no means least, Steve Cheal competed well over the course and handled the ‘hill of fear’ with confidence as he battled to a very creditable 1121st place.
With previous winner, Frank Tickner injured, the overall race was due to be an open affair. Some early bunching was broken up decisively by pre-race favourite, Tom Humphries as he powered off in the second lap and had only the back markers to hold him up to win ahead of surprise second place, Phil Wicks of Belgrave Harriers.
Closer to home superveteran Pam Jones was in action competing at the British Masters Indoor Championships at the Excellent Lee Valley indoor arena in the womens 1500 and 3000 metres. The races went well for Pam who not having raced for a few weeks so decided to track the over 70 opposition before making her move on the last lap to come home 1st in 7m 8.56s, a bit slower than last year but still managing to beat 1 W65 in the process.
The 3.000m on Sunday was more enjoyable for Pam as she ran with the M65+ age groups so there were a los of bodies around and being the only W70 in this race clocked 14 28.8s just 4 secs slower than last year.
The Cricklefields club will be out in force in next Saturdays Essex senior road relays at Melbourne, Chelmsford, next Saturday.
Track and Field
UK Championships U20/U17/U15Rachel Giwa competing the UK championships in Birmingham ran superbly well recording two successive PB's on route to the final. In the heat she beat one of the UK's finest young sprinting talents Rebekah Wilson in a PB of 7.70s. The semi final was tightly contested with Rachel finishing second to the eventual Silver Medalist in a PB of 7.65s. In the final for the second successive year Rachel excelled running a slightly slower time of 7.75s and finishing fifth. With the start of the summer season just over ten weeks away Rachel hopes to close the gap on the top athletes in the country in her age group and is working to realise her full potential.Simeon Stuart competing in the Under 20 Long Jump for the first time after moving up an age group recorded a creditable 6.27m for 20th place in a large field of 29 athletes. Having been very successful earlier in the year at the Southern Championships finishing in the top 8 Simeon found it difficult in the large crowd of athletes to produce his best form. Simeon was delighted to have the opportunity to compete against the best in the country, felt he dealt well with the large crowd and is looking forward to the summer with high expectations.Gary Madigan competing in both the Under 20 60m and 200m for the first time was slightly in awe of the others in his races. The championships pit the best in the country against each other and can be a very daunting experience for young athletes. Gary rose to the challenge recording times of 7.41s and 23.46s in his heats but failed to make the cut for either semi final. Gary has only been training and competing in the sport for a short time and with further preparation and competition Gary can look forward to a more successful summer season.5 ways university matchAaron Balogun competing for Brunel University has returned to his best form running a time of 21.89s in the 200m. Aaron has struggled to make the transition to university life and a new coach and this performance was a welcome return to form after a disappointing set of winter competitions. Aaron is looking ahead to the national university championships in a couple of weeks with high expectations