Veteran Iain is still a threat

A SMALL squad of four Ilford athletes lined up in a large field of over 400 runners in Gloucester Park, Basildon on Sunday morning for the Littlehavens 5k. Scotsman and former winner, Ilford s Iain Campbell, was one of many running legends present. The r

A SMALL squad of four Ilford athletes lined up in a large field of over 400 runners in Gloucester Park, Basildon on Sunday morning for the Littlehavens 5k.

Scotsman and former winner, Ilford's Iain Campbell, was one of many running legends present.

The runners went off at a furious pace with Billericay's senior statesmen David Butler leading the charge, with Campbell patiently biding his time, sitting just off the pace.

With half of the first lap gone, things had more or less sorted themselves out as Campbell hit the front, having only Basildon's Dale Clutterbuck for company.

Despite Clutterbuck being 32 years his junior, he was unable to fight off the attentions of the Ilford veteran, but just pipped him to the post in 16 mins 11 seconds, with the Ilford man just one second behind.

The club had three women in the ladies' race who arrived at the finish line with barely a minute between them.

Nicola Hopkinson led the way with 23.31, with Sally Gillam and Nikki McNelis happy with their runs of 24.07 and 24.29 respectively, both finishing well up in the field.

Meanwhile, Pam Jones has now returned from Lahti, Finland, where she has been giving an excellent account of herself in the 18th World veteran track and field championships.

After two narrow defeats to the same opponent in the 5,000m and the 8k cross country, she brilliantly turned the tables in the 10,000m, defeating her adversary Zofia Turosz for the women's 70+ gold medal, clocking 51.15 to the Pole's 51.59.

Unfortunately, the club's other represenative, John Batchelor, has had to sit things out following a hamstring injury sustained during the latter stages of the 5,000m last week.