News

The pinnacle of the Schools off-track season is the English Schools Cross Country, where every County selects 8 athletes to represent them over Junior, Inter, and Senior races. The event this year will be held at Ardingly, West Sussex on Saturday 15th March. Many club athletes again had some excellent results as they progressed from local, and regional qualifiers, and some then onto the South-East recently at Newbury. This year we have a trio of athletes that have qualified all the way through to Ardingly next month, which we can not recall the last time we had three at this event,... read more

A third GB vest and a trip to Antalya in the south west of Turkey was the reward for Harriers Lizzie Wellsted, after qualifying to represent Great Britain at the Thirtieth European Cross Country Championships.Course conditions were vastly different to that of a ‘typical’ UK cross country course. Being situated on land which is in the process of being developed, it was mostly ‘man-made.’ Features such as staggered log jumps, mini-fences, hilly mounds, sand, and a short muddy section were created to add difficulty. Team GB are Ready To Race! Lizzie unfortunately had a few... read more

Colchester Harriers eighteen-year-old endurance running sensation, Lizzie ‘The Whizz’ Wellsted, lived up to her nickname by bagging her third Great Britain vest at the Liverpool Cross Challenge on Saturday. The race acted as an under-twenty’s qualifier for the upcoming European Cross Country Championships in Turkey. A huge start list, a stacked field and never-ending mud and rain did not phase Lizzie. Starting quickly but sensibly, she ran her own race, moving through the field and timing her charge to perfection to secure a comfortable third place finish over the 4.4km course and the... read more

A stunning Autumn morning saw the First Event of the Ness Cross Country League hosted by Ipswich Jaffa at equally stunning Ipswich High School which was familiar location to athletes today who had competed in the Ekiden Relays over the summer. It was great to see a strong 20 junior Athletes turn out in their green vests and a huge well done to those racing for the 2nd consecutive day after Saturdays challenging Essex League event at Gloucester Park Basildon. The race kicked off in stunning sunshine at 10am and the Mile course with mild undulations headed off around the back of the... read more

As most of you will be aware, Rick Thompson stood down as chairman at the recent AGM after leading the club for the last 2 years (and on a number of previous occasions). On behalf of the club, we would like to thank him for his stewardship of the club over the past 2 years, and navigating us through a number of challenging situations and the time he committed to the role. For those not present at the AGM, the following resolutions were agreed: To combine membership and training fees next year when members renew To trial a monthly membership payment scheme when members renew next... read more

More great results from students at the Suffolk Schools Cross Country First Round, at Royal Hospital School in Holbrook. Due to the number of athletes, the races in the first round are split into two halves, North & West (N&W) Suffolk, and South & East (S&E) Suffolk, which then combine at subsequent dates when qualifiers are only 100 per race. First to run in the N&W Minor Boys was Finley Weir. He paced his race perfectly, letting many go off at the start, that later slowed greatly, Finley was very strong the whole race and achieved a brilliant 6th position, which... read more

Five Colchester Harriers traveled up as Colchester Sixth Form students to Norwich today to the AOC (Association of Colleges) Endurance Cross County Regional Race, over 5.6km. Following her successful Senior debut at the relays at the weekend, Alice Begg followed this up with a stunning win. Showing her usual great pacing, she stuck to her plan, and was in third with just over 1km to go, but pushed through for the win and powered home in 24:10. Isabelle (Izzie) Buegelln, after racing 300m and 400m all season put in a fine performance to finish 7th in 29:40, she will return again to aim... read more

Colchester Harriers enjoyed a successful morning at the Ingatestone 5 Mile Road Race – this year’s Essex 5 Mile Championships - with some fine individual performances contributing to excellent team results. Roanna Vickers was again in imperious form as she came home first in the women’s race, making light of the undulating course to record a time of 30:08 and successfully defend her Essex title.  Roanna was well backed up with strong runs from Lucy Davies (5th in 31:31), Emma Burgess (7th in 31:45) and Charlotte Barnard (8th in 31:48) as the girls in green also took the team... read more

Colchester Harriers latest Olympian Charlie Dobson enjoyed a successful week in Paris with Team GB.  The week started well with Charlie winning the final heat of six in round one of the 400m last Monday evening in the Stade de France.   Running in lane 5 Charlie clocked 44.96s to progress to the semi-final the next evening. This time Charlie was drawn in lane 8 in the first of three semi-final races.  He took fourth place in 44.48s but failed to progress to the final as one of the two fastest losers.  The third semi-final saw Charlie’s GB teammate Matthew... read more

Last week Colchester Harriers sixteen-year-old middle distance runner Lyla Belshaw, coached by Dave Smith, travelled to Banská Bystrica, Slovakia to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 1500m at the European Athletics Under 18 Championships.  On the Thursday evening Lyla had to first negotiate her heat.  Fourteen athletes lined up at the start of the heat, with the first six finishers in the race qualifying for Sunday’s final.  Once the race settled down Lyla was always in the top four. Lyla clocked 4m 22.61s to finish second in a blanket finish with athletes... read more