News

Colchester Harriers’ rising star, Victoria Primmer, continued her recent rapid improvement across all distances with a remarkable run as the autumn marathon season got properly under way with the 47th running of the Berlin Marathon. The 26 year old defied temperatures rising into the mid 20 degrees centigrade to run an excellently paced race, running 1:37:36 for the first half of the race and then gradually accelerating to post 1:34:20 for the second half to record an overall time of 3:11:56. Primmer’s time was more than half an hour faster than her previous best for the distance and... read more

by Steven Shippey Saturday 11th September saw the return of the South of England Inter County U15/U20 Championships at Horspath in Oxford and Colchester Harriers had two athletes selected to represent Essex at this event. First up, was first year U20 Sam Shippey in the 400m who got out quickly and ran a strong final bend to finish in 2nd place with a new PB of 50.47. Next to compete was U15 Wyatt Larkins in the Hammer who finished in first place blowing away his competition by nearly 3m with a throw of 39.48m. And finally, with Essex a man down in the 200m Sam Shippey was asked... read more

The Colchester Harriers Ladies’ team announced their arrival on the county athletics stage with a resounding victory at the Essex Half Marathon Championships, held in Pleshey. On an unexpectedly sultry autumn morning the team swept all before them to take a convincing team gold medal thanks to a stream of fine performances. Heidi Hogan-Steele led the way, finishing 3rd overall to also take individual bronze in a fine time of 1:26:49 in what was her first competitive outing for over 18 months. The Tolleshunt D’Arcy based runner was backed up some excellent, consistent efforts from her... read more

As with everything Covid, the 2021 EYAL league matches took on a new format this year; no finals were being chased and clubs were arranged into “localish” groupings.  It was therefore wonderful to see live athletics action back in Colchester, when on Sunday 12 September, Harriers hosted the second and last of the meets – welcoming teams from Norwich, Ipswich, Team Norfolk, North Suffolk and Colchester and Tendring. Despite athlete numbers being down on previous years, there was still plenty of stiff opposition in many events making for some exciting competition. This was... read more

Allen Smalls, Colchester Harriers’ Ultra-marathon specialist, once again showed his remarkable staying power as he tackled the UTS Snowdonia 100, one of the UK’s toughest trail events. Featuring over 23,000 feet of climbing, the 100Km course along technical mountain trails offers plenty of challenges, but Smalls was equal to them all completing the race in a remarkable time of 21 hours and 41 minutes to finish 23rd overall and 1st V50 in a competitive field of over two hundred top trail runners. Meanwhile, in the slightly more prosaic setting of Kew Gardens Paul Mingay continued... read more

Evergreen Colchester Harriers veteran Adrian Mussett showed that he retains a spring in his step by cruising to victory in the Great East 10K at King’s Lynn. Mussett came home to win over a minute ahead of his closest rival, breaking the tape in a remarkable time of 32:33, the seventh fastest time in his age group in the UK this year. Keeping it in the family, Anita Mussett also had a good day, clocking 49:12 to finish 7th in her age group. There were also a host of great performances by Colchester runners in other road races over the weekend. The Clacton Half Marathon saw Seb Eaton run... read more

Usually seen as an early season opportunity to gain qualification standards for national events, the pandemic delayed Essex County AA Track and Field Championships finally took place over the weekend of 31 July, 1st August.  Harriers Track and Field athletes did themselves proud amassing a total haul of 13 medals and one superb Championship Best Performance by Lyla Belshaw. An early start on Saturday morning for U15 Hammer thrower, Wyatt Larkins saw him ease through to the final where he had the opportunity of an extra three efforts.  Sadly a magnificent throw just over... read more

Colchester Harriers’ athletes are continuing to get back into the swing of racing with a host of excellent performances in events up and down the country. Starting close to home, the Felsted 10K is a well established race in the local calendar that always attracts a good field and this year’s race was no exception with 13 green vests amongst the 300 runners lining up at the start. Mark Howard was the first home for the club, battling very warm conditions to clock 39:13 and finish inside the top 20. Jack McGuire posted a promising time of 40:41 on debut and he was followed by Dan Cook... read more

National Successes for Happy Harriers Hammer Throwers! Having made the long trek up to Manchester on Friday 9th July, Josephine Larkins (SG Hammer) was eager to get started. This was her first English Schools Championships and unsurprisingly she was a little nervous but excited to represent Essex.  As the penultimate athlete to throw this allowed her to size up her fellow competitors. After a No Throw on her first attempt due to nerves, Josephine threw 42.00m on her 3rd attempt, leaving her in 7th place going into the final. Unable to increase this with a further 3 throws,  she... read more

Colchester Harriers’ athletes figured prominently as the county’s best athletes gathered at the Chelmsford Athletics Stadium for the 2021 Essex 5000m championships on Wednesday evening.. Despite having completed over 50 miles in a 24 hour race just three days previously super-girl Victoria Primmer (pictured) ran a perfectly judged race to come through the field and finish third in the Women’s event and so capture her first county medal, with club-mate Jennifer Lovelock taking sixth place. Not to be out-done, super-vet Paul Mingay took silver in the Men’s V50 event, the Kelvedon... read more