Colchester Harriers runners were out in force at the Essex Road Relays held on a very windy seafront at Harwich on Saturday morning. The Green vests were in outstanding form claiming seven sets of team medals, a club record.

Women race

The green vests showed tremendous team spirit to win the womens race and take the gold medals in the over 35 team race in an exciting race which saw three teams break the hour mark.  The victorious Harriers team clocking 59m 33s to win the over 35 race by more than four minutes from Saffron Striders.

The experienced Sarah Stradling clocked 20m 33s for fourth overall when she handed the baton over to Aiko Henington at the end of the first leg.  Sarah was almost three minutes behind the leading lady, Springfield Strider Liz Davies who clocked a very fast time of 17m 34s for the 5k and around three quarter of a minute behind the Saffron Striders athlete.  A superb run  from Aiko saw her take the lead in the over 35 race clocking the third fastest ladies time of the day 19m 17s before handing over to the in form Helen Taczynski.   Helen was now just 16 seconds behind the Springfield Striders.  A strong sub 20 minute 5k from Helen (19m 53s) saw her take the lead, crossing the finish line less than 5 seconds ahead of Springfield with Southend a further thirteen second back for a famous Harriers victory.  

The over 45 team were also in glorious form winning gold with superb runs coming from Margaret Deasy 20m 50s, Denise Morley 21m 33s and Debbie Cattermole 21m 42s.  They were chased home hard by the Harriers B team who won silver medals with impressive runs from Annette Oakman 21m 43s, Kate Sandercock 21m 57s and Melissa Dowell 23m 03s.  In the senior race the A team were in cracking form; the trio of track specialist Stacey Eyres showed good form in 20m 29s, ably supported by Becky Cooke 20m 41s and Heidi Steele 20m 53s. to win bronze medals.

Full Harriers women’s results
Senior teams
7th team – Ella Jeffries 21m 46s, Sam Hart 22.m 06s and Jordi Moat 22m 30s.
Over 35 teams
10th team – Helen Thurlow 24m 53s, Rachel Abbott 26m 59s and Rachel Rodgers 29m 10s.
Over 45 teams
Elizabeth Cahill 24m 07s, Anita Mussett 24m 04s and Susan Waller-Toyne 25m 07s.

Men’s race

The over 40 men’s 3 x 5k team won gold with an excellent first leg coming from super veteran Adrian Mussett who ran his 5k leg in 16m 20s, ably supported by Doug McGillivray 17m 56s and James Wright 18m 16s. The over 50 Men’s team were also in awesome form, winning gold. The first 5k leg runner was Paul Dobson 18m 32s followed by Keith Marley 18m 46s on second leg with the anchor leg run by the reliable Allen Smalls in 18m 20s. In the senior men’s 4 x 5k event an exciting race developed between the top three teams resulting in Harriers Ramadan Osman running a blinder on the first leg, recording the second fastest time of the day, 15m 51s, ably supported by Dean Wilkinson in 16m 44s, Ed Mitchell 16m 17s and Nat Filer 17m 28s. The team did themselves proud to finish in bronze medal position.

Full Harriers men’s results
Senior teams
8th team – Ermeas Afewerki 16m 47s, Danny Millward 17m 27s, Chris Sellens 17m 30s and Mark McKeown 17m 37s.
13th team – Jason Gunn 17m 16s, Thomas Palmer 18m 05s, Andrew Jobling 18m 06s and Oscar Dawson 17m 49s.
15th team – Barry Frost 18m 51s, Alexander Sales 19m 06s, Mark Howard 19m 17s and Victor Steinwand 18m 33s.
17th team – Max Caulfield 21m 09s, Robert Smith 18m 35s, Dominik Niciejewski 18m 59s and Michael Smith 19m 12s.
18th team – Ged McMillan 19m 19s, John Fryer 18m 59s, Joseph Boden 20m 40s, and Kevin Higgins 19m 54s.
25th team – Dan Marks 21m 47s, Simon Ford 20m 02s , Andrew Taczynski 20m 48s and Daniel Wilkinson 21m 49s.
26th team – Rob Cronshaw 19m 19s, Tim Comer 21m 18s, Lee Caulfield 24m 49s and Mark Wigley 22m 38s.
30th team – Martin Claydon 23m 02s, Kieran Callaghan 24m 13s, Patrick Marsh 22m 15s, Daniel Cool 23m 58s
Over 40 teams
5th team – Paul Rodgers 17m 36s, Richard Heath 17m 59s and Jonathan Nears 18m 54s.
10th team – Paul Preston 18m 29s, James Waterson 19m 05s, Lee Holohan 20m 52s.
11th team – Pete Jones 19m 28s, Chris Manby 19m 51s and Richard Millward 20m 14s.
Over 50 teams
5th team – Peter West 19m 23s, Clive Thomas 19m 49s and Colin Ridley 18m 50s.
6th team – Jay Waite 18m 40s, Richard Boden 20m 01s, Andrew Raynor 22m 03s
9th team – Simon Morgan 21m 11s, Simon Miller 22m 28s and David Wright 21m 30s.
12th team – Gary Rayner 22m 44s, Arthur Whiston 23m 25s and David Hilson 21m 20s.