News

Colchester Harriers young hopeful Lizzie Wellsted continued her fine recent run of form with another brilliant performance at the Ipswich Twilight 10K, the 17 year old defying high winds and heavy rain to clock 34:20 and win the women’s race by a margin of over a minute.  Lizzie’s time, the fastest time in her age group in the UK this year by over two minutes, was within 30 seconds of the British record and comes just 2 weeks after she narrowly missed out on the 5 mile record at Great Bentley. Lizzie taking on the field at a wet Ipswich (photo: Eric Shaw) Steve Mason was next... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes enjoyed a remarkable weekend of success with some stunning performances both in county and national track championships as well as in one of the toughest trail races in the region. Lyla Belshaw took centre stage, shining in the National U20 championships in Chelmsford, the 15 year old continuing her superb run of form to run a remarkable Personal Best (PB) of 4:17:34 to finish in a clear second place despite being up against national standard athletes up to 5 years older than her.  Lyla Belshaw in full flow to finish second at National U20 1500M... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes put in some strong performances at two of Essex’s big road races over the weekend. The Halstead and Essex Marathon, in its 27th year and doubling as the Essex Marathon Championships, saw a strong Harriers entry.  Mark McKeown was first home for the club, clocking 2:46:54 to finish fifth overall and be crowned Essex M40 Champion.  Allen Smalls was the next green vest home, crossing the line in 2:59:09 to take the Essex M55 title.  Nate Filer ran 3:22:40, Jake Darkins, in his first marathon for 11 years, ran 3:24:31, Dan Macey clocked 3:53:02, Lily Gilby... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes made the most of almost perfect running conditions to enjoy a successful day at this year’s TCS London Marathon. Altogether 15 green vests completed the 26.2 mile course with Ryan Day the first to finish, breaking the tape in 2:38:12 to finish in the top 500 overall after executing a perfectly paced race.  Rosie Wild was next home for Colchester, the 31 year old running 2:43:40 in only her second marathon to take 6 minutes off her Personal Best (PB) and finish a remarkable 16th out of over 20,000 women competitors.  Nate Filer (2:48:30) and Andrew... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes enjoyed a glorious day in the sun at the Essex Road Relays – held for the second successive year at the town’s Northern Gateway Sports Park – to come away with an impressive haul of team medals. The men’s squad certainly had that podium feeling – with medal winning teams in all four categories – and golds in three of them.   The V40 team of Nate Filer (15:40), Jason Gunn (15:40) and Mark McKeown (15:47) ran remarkably similar times for their 3 mile legs to hold off the challenge of a strong Billericay Striders’ trio.  Consistency... read more

Members may have noticed that last summer the Army took away the defibrillator from the track. This was because across their estate the Army / Sodexo were concerned that some defibs were faulty and may not work if needed. Well the good news is that we have not one new defib, but two! Firstly the Army have replaced the defib that was located on the wall near the men's changing rooms (see photo) with a brand new unit! It is there and ready to use, by any one using the track or hockey pitches etc, so if the worst were to happen it is close to... read more

Lee Valley 4 & 5 March 2023 Having made her mark as a sprint prospect last year, Jadesola Fawehinmi made qualifying through the 60m rounds of the Essex Indoor Champs look very easy. After a hiccup over vests and little time to warm up, a win in the first round of the U15 girls heats (8.08s) gained automatic qualification through to the semi, where she looked confident and calm and once again delivered with another clear win in 8.07s. An hour later an exciting battle took place which kept Harriers own Chris Akehurst busy on the photofinish desk – and Jadesola a nail biting wait to... read more

Colchester Harriers promising youngsters, Lyla Belshaw and Lizzie Wellsted continued their fabulous winter seasons with brilliant displays at the Saucony National Cross-Country Championships in Chester.  On a grassy, if flat, course both girls did their club proud with Belshaw running strongly to take a superb bronze medal in the U15 Girls' race and Wellsted, at her first national event running a controlled, consistent race to finish a highly creditable 10th in the U17 Women’s event.  The girls now go on to represent Essex at the national inter-counties at Loughborough on 11... read more

Colchester Harriers all-conquering women’s team continued their run of recent success by lifting the Essex Cross Country League trophy after finishing second in the final race of the season in Hainault.  Lydia Callan led the team home with a fine third place, her highest individual finish of the season and was backed up by strong runs from Emma Burgess (16th), super-vet Margaret Deasy (17th and 1st V55), Denise Morley (22nd, 2nd V50) and Ellie Cumner (27th) as the green vests pipped Havering AC to the title in a tight finish to the season.  Harriers’ women also lifted the Vets... read more

Colchester Harriers' athletes made the most of excellent conditions at the Great Bentley Half Marathon to produce a string of personal best (PB) performances.  Now firmly established as the fastest local 13.1 miler, the race attracted a top-quality field who were treated to calm, sunny conditions very different to the squally rain faced by competitors last year. Louis Davey was first home for the club, the first of many to record a PB, crossing the line in 1:16:36 to finish 19th overall.  He was followed by Jack McGuire (1:18:44 - PB) and then James Wright, making a promising... read more