Lithuania's Neringa Aidietyte

Aidietyte to become fifth Ilford AC member to become an Olympian

Ilford AC member Neringa Aidietyte has been selected to represent Lithuania in the Olympic Games Women’s 20 Kilometres walk.

The 29-year-old has become only the fifth athlete from the Cricklefield-based club to achieve Olympian status, with the most recent duo being Roger Mills and Wilbert Greaves at the 1980 Games in Moscow in the 20km walk and 100m hurdles respectively.

Others who have made the Olympics include Phyllis Perkins at Rome in 1960 in the 800m and Fergus Murray in the 10,000m at the 1964 Games in Tokyo.

And Aidietyte celebrated her Olympic selection for her country with two consecutive wins in the last week.

Aidietyte – who represented Lithuania at the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010 finishing 15th over 20km – led from gun to tape in an Enfield League 5,000m walk at the Copthall Stadium track on Saturday.

She stopped the clock in a time of 22 minutes and 48 seconds and finished ahead of all the male competitors as well.

That was followed up with another comfortable win over 3,000m in an Open Graded meeting at Ashtons Track in Chigwell on Tuesday in 13.06, once again defeating all the male competitors.

Meanwhile, club-mate Francisco Reis recovered from injury in the Copthall Stadium event to take second in a time of 14.01 on Tuesday.

Back at the Enfield League meeting, Steve Uttley claimed second spot in the men’s event, clocking 26.08, while veteran Alan O’Rawe finished eighth in 30.22.