Congratulations to the 2025 Annual Award winners: Female Marathon Runner of the Year: Cindy Koon Male Marathon Runner of the Year: John Henry Female Cross Country Runner of the Year: Becky Evans Male Cross Country Runner of the Year: Clive Stephenson Most Improved Female Runner: Nicola Wyndham Most Improved Male Runner: Imran Mustak Female Runner of the Year: Emma Corbett Male Runner of the Year: Joshua Rees Davies Volunteer of the Year: Carlton DSouza Track Star: Bernard Mansell Dave Knight Trophy - Newcomer of the Year: Neil Bianchi Roger Dixon Shield - Club Person of the Year: Imran Mustak
In the late 70s and early 80s there was a noted local race-walker called Roger Mills, who was a member of Ilford AC. He raced in the Tokyo Olympics where he finished in 10th place. He was a regular member of the UK squad. He won a Bronze medal in European Championships in Rome in 1974. 1974 European Championships Rome, Italy 3rd 20 km 1980 Olympic Games Moscow, Soviet Union 10th 20 km 1983 World Championships Helsinki, Finland 37th 20 km About this time a "jogging" boom was turning into a "running" boom. Starting in the USA it quickly spread to the UK. The New York marathon was imitated by the London Marathon which started in 1981. In May 1982 Roger opened a running/sports shop in Wanstead High Street called....Athletic East. There was a well-known chain of shops in the USA called Athletic West, so we guess that this was East London's/the UK's answer. Roger's first shop was a tiny, narrow shop in the little parade just by the George Public house. It was from this shop, in 1982, that a group would meet on a Wednesday evening to go for a run and East London Runners was born, organised by Roger. The popularity grew so much that we moved to Wanstead Leisure Centre in about 1983/4, where we have been ever since. The early to mid 1990's saw the Club at it's peak in terms of numbers with over 200 active members and 104 runners one Wednesday evening when the pre run meeting had to take place in the Centre's Gymnasium. Today the membership is around 32/330 active members with an average of 50/70 running each Wednesday. September 1st 2010 saw 65 runners at the Club night with 49 then attending the Curry Night at a local Indian restaurant at 9pm following the Club run. Wednesday 5th January 2011 increased this number to 72 with 10 of this number trying out the Club for the first time. Numbers have continued to remain high with a total membership exceeding 180 as at 31st March 2012. Similar numbers have been experienced with an increase to circa 200 to 31st March 2013 and 2014 and March 2015. On 5th May 2015 we introduced a Beginners Group run of up to 5k each Wednesday in conjunction with the main Club run. Most weeks we had 3 distances of 5k, 5 miles and in excess of 6 miles. This continued through until 30th September 2015. With darkness falling earlier each week we discontinued the 5k run but continued with the other two.We also restarted Beginner Groups in May 2016 and 2017 As at the close of our financial year 31st March 2016 membership numbers had increased to 262. Renewals commenced from 1st April 2016 and including new members this figure has been exceeded. In 2016/17 membership numbers continued to increase and as at the end of our financial year, 31st March 2017, stood at 299. From 1st April 2017 renewals fell due. ELR and England Athletics allow a grace period of 3 months to renew. After that time we at ELR tidy up our membership database, after numerous renewal reminders to members, on 1st July each year. Those members choosing not to renew, some may have moved from the area, have long term injuries or their personal circumstances have changed are no longer part of the database and will lose all of their ELR and EA benefits. They can however rejoin when their circumstances change. We completed our your end 31st March 2018 with over 300 members and 2019 with 329, at end of March 2020 we reached 350 despite the coronavirus. The UK Government announced Lockdown beginning on 23rd March 2020 which resulted in suspension of all Club Axctivities. The message was STAY HOME - PROTECT THE NHS -SAVE LIVES.
Winners 2025 - Imran Mustak 2024 - Sandra Preston 2023 - Jacob Stevens 2022 - Michael Wilson 2021 - Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera 2020 - Above & Beyond 2019 - Frank Brownlie 2018 - Joanna Wood 2017 - Sonia Cheadle
Roger Dixon 1948 - 2017 Following Roger's death in September 2017 the Committee of East London Runners agreed that a new Award would be made to the Club Person of the Year for 2017 and for future years. This award was to be named the Roger Dixon Shield and the winner would be voted by the members of the Club each year. WINNERS 2017 - Sonia Cheadle 2018 - Joanna Wood 2019 - Frank Brownlie 2021 - Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera 2022 - Michael Wilson
2026 June 2026 - Natalie France May 2026 - Mary Connolly April 2026 - Guy Lambert March 2026 - Daniel O’Donoghue February 2026 - Tina Bennett January 2026 - Vicky Tam 2025 December 2025 - Natasha Howard November 2025 - Kris Shuttleworth October 2025 - Suzi Brent September 2025 - Becky Evans August 2025 - Neil Bianchi July 2025 - Amit Marks June 2025 - Shrehan Lynch May 2025 - Nicola Wyndham April 2025 - Mark Durrant March 2025 - Clive Stephenson February 2025 - Scott McMillan January 2025 - Sarah Burns 2024 December 2024 - Cindy Koon November 2024 - Cath Perry October 2024 - Joshua Rees Davies September 2024 - Paul Watkins August 2024 - Emma Corbett July 2024 - Maya Goodwin June 2024 - Eren Ozkan May 2024 - Imran Mustak April 2024 - Nathaniel Dye March 2024 - Fernando Espada February 2024 - Simon Nash January 2024 - Abdirahman Adan 2023 December 2023 - Tasnia Choudhury November 2023 - Ryan Friel October 2023 - Kasia Stachowiak September 2023 - Joseph Osakue August 2023 - Clare Stevens July 2023 - Shahib Ali June 2023 - Karan Gadhia May 2023 - Ian Mackie April 2023 - Ava Lee March 2023 - Sandra Preston February 2023 - Victoria Charlesworth January 2023 - Darminder Bhamra 2022 December 2022 - Sarah Burns November 2022 - Rachel Bailey October 2022 - Daniel O’Donoghue September 2022 - Joshua Rees Davies August 2022 - Betty Bohane July 2022 - Cindy Koon June 2022 - John O’Brien May 2022 - Debbie Shearing April 2022 - James Nichols March 2022 - David Kwakye February 2022 - Antonio Martin Romero January 2022 - Caroline Frith 2021 December 2021 - Joseph Gunn November 2021 - Alex Pickering October 2021 - Alice Barrett September 2021 - Becky Evans August 2021 - John Henry July 2021 - Nathaniel Dye June 2021 - Morag Campbell May 2021 - Jose Rodriguez April 2021 - Paul Woodmansey January to March 2021 - holdover due to COVID-19! 2020 November and December 2020 - holdover due to COVID-19! October 2020 - Paul Quinton April to September 2020 - holdover due to COVID-19! March 2020 - Stuart Kelly February 2020 - Antonio Martin Romero January 2020 - Jose Rodriguez 2019 December 2019 - Chloe Millan November 2019 - Paul Thompson October 2019 - John Henry September 2019 - Catriona and Nick Hoult August 2019 - Peter Craik July 2019 - Nathaniel Dye June 2019 - Euan Brown and Jose Rodriguez May 2019 - Samia Choudhury April 2019 - Antonio Martin Romero March 2019 - Arthur Diaz February 2019 - Scott McMillan January 2019 - Becky Evans 2018 December 2018 - Terry Lewsey November 2018 - Peter Hatley October 2018 - Rachel Le Roux and Karan Gadhia September 2018 - Antonio Martin Romero August 2018 - Zoila Gilham-Fernandez July - Caroline Frith June - Louis Le Roux May 2018 - Jimmy Dale April 2018 - Ciaran Canavan and Jo Wood March 2108 - Mark Moir February 2018 - Ellie Wilkinson January 2018 - Diana Rexhepaj 2017. December 2017 - Karen Levison November 2017 - Roselin Boramakot and Kat Maskell October 2017 - Michael Bamford September 2017 - Andy Balderstone and Stuart Norris August 2017 - Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera July 2017 - Jason Levy June 2017 - Jennifer Ansell May 2017 - Lucy Barron April 2017 - Thomas Grimes and Antonio Martin Romero March 2017 - Suzanne Bench February 2017 - Emily Clarke and James Nichols January 2017 - Maud Hodson 2016. January 2016 - Grant Conway February 2016 - Aaron Browne March 2016 - Judith Anna Vonberg April 2016 - Bernadett Kalmar and Spencer Evans May 2016 - Billy Rayner June 2016 - Sandra Hiller and Robert Rayworth July 2016 - Dan Slipper August 2016 - Karen Levison September 2016 - Ava Lee October 2016 - Scott McMillan November 2016 - Fiona Critchley and John Paul Healy December 2016 - Paul Marshall 2015. January 2015 - Phillippa Walker February 2015 - Roberto Bruni March 2015 - The Brown Brothers (Euan Brown, Alex Day and Patrick Brown) April 2015 - Russell Price May 2015 - Maya Goodwin and Bozena Myslinska June 2015 - Thomas Grimes July 2015 - Trish Kelly August 2015 - Jennifer Ansell September 2015 - Sarah Burns October 2015 - Maud Hodson November 2015 - Carlton D'Souza December 2015 - Jonathan Wooldridge
Apart from 1984, when the Shield was first presented for the best performance by an East London Runner, when it was won by Lee Richardson, the Curtis Shield has always been awarded to the Club Person of the past year. In 1985 the award went to Trevor Cornell the Club's then Chairman. In 1986 it was awarded to Dick Pleasance for help that he gave to others, especially new members. In 1987 it was awarded to Steve Knott, who at the time was Club President. In 1988 it went to Mike Matcham who was responsible for getting the Social side of ELR going. In 1989 Peter Cowup who was also Social Secretary won the award. The award went to Trevor Jason in 1990 for his work as Coach at Walthamstow Track. Trevor was the first to also win the Most Improved Runner award.In 1991 John White won the Shield for his work as Editor of the Club Magazine Runaround. John was Editor for abour 8 years.In 1992 Peter Cowup became the first person to win the Curtis Shield twice, this time as Club President. The award went to Simon Morgan in 1993, the Club's Chairman and youngest winner of the award at that time. Winners The CURTIS SHIELD was Retired in October 2017. December 2016 - Jonathan Wooldridge December 2015 - Maya Goodwin December 2014 - Don Bennett March 2014 - Patrick Brown 2013 - Grant Conway 2012 - Ciaran Canavan 2011 - Derek Wright 2010 - Frank Brownlie 2009 - Mike Wilson 2008 - John Atkinson 2007 - Jim Bird 2006 - Kirk Johnson 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - Mike Wilson 2002 - Don Bennett 2001 - Don Bennett 2000 - 1999 - Clive Jackson 1998 - John McCarthy 1997 - Lesley Morgan 1996 - Don Bennett 1995 - Jim Bird 1994 - Doug Mansell 1993 - Simon Morgan 1992 - Peter Cowup 1991 - John White 1990 - Trevor Jason 1989 - Peter Cowup 1988 - Mike Matcham 1987 - Steve Knott 1986 - Dick Pleasance 1985 - Trevor Cornell 1984 - Lee Richardson