News

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

Saturday saw Sean Eales competing for Suffolk in the Anglian Championship at Norwich. The persistent thundershowers added some additional challenge to the afternoon and after several delays Sean was eventually able to compete in the Senior 2000m Steeplechase. Sean ran a well-paced race and recorded a PB with a time of 6.43:2, this is a 50 second improvement since his initial Steeplechase just ten months ago, and may also be a club record. This has led to his selection to represent Suffolk in Steeplechase at the English Schools Championship in July at... read more

Colchester Harriers started their 2024 Essex Road Championships campaign in Saffron Walden with a strong showing at the Essex 20 road race, held at Debden Airfield.  For the men Kim Bowling ran strongly to record a Personal Best (PB) 1:53:17 and finish fifth, Cameron Humphries crossed the line in 1:58:53 (PB) to finish twelfth, and with Dan Widdowson completing the scoring team in 2:11:03 (34th) the Harriers men’s team finished fourth on the day.  Other finishers for the green vests were Bary Frost (2:12:48), Jerry Walder 2:14:54 (PB - V50 Bronze), and Chris Stevenson 2:22:59 (PB... read more

Colchester Harriers took a large squad to the Great Bentley Half Marathon on Sunday and made light of the difficult conditions with a string of impressive performances. Leading the way was Rosie Wild, the long-distance specialist putting in her trademark brave performance to take the winning tape in a time of 1:20:13, over a minute clear of her closest rival.  Rosie was well backed up by Kate Creak, who finished strongly to claim an excellent fifth place (1:26:03) and Heidi Hogan-Steele – continuing her comeback from the birth of her daughter with a courageous 1:30:20.  Other... read more

On Saturday several promising young athletes did themselves proud by competing in the Essex Schools Cross Country Championships, which were held in Benfleet in challenging conditions. In Junior Boys, 14-year-old Rohan Dasoar dug deep to finish 6th to qualify him for the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Pontefract in March. There was also an excellent run from Finley Greenleaf finishing 12th in the Inter Boys and he will now go through to the Southern Region Cross Country in February. In the Inter Girls race, first-year Isla Widdowson finished in 5th position, also... read more