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A warm, sunny day and dry underfoot conditions greeted Essex’s best runners as they gathered in South Weald Park, Brentwood for the Essex Cross Country Relay Championships, the traditional curtain-raiser to the winter season. And it was Colchester Harriers’ on-form women’s team that made a clear statement of intent for the forthcoming season by winning the overall trophy for the first time since 2014, although it really couldn’t have been closer. A flying start from lead-off woman Lydia Callan saw her hand the baton over to teammate Holly Freegard in second place - a few metres... read more

Colchester Harriers in form women’s team still managed to find a silver lining at the Essex Half Marathon Championships at Pleshey despite the baked, cloudless skies.  On a day of relentless heat, far from ideal for endurance running, the women came through with another fine team performance to secure second place.  Debutant Kate Creak was the star of the show, clocking a remarkable 1:29:25 to take overall bronze despite taking a nasty tumble eight miles in and was backed up by brave showings from Victoria Primmer (1:36:11 – 8th) and captain Justine Sheekey (1:36:16 – 9th) as... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes turned out in force and enjoyed a successful evening at the Essex 5K Championships at Colchester’s Northern Gateway Sportspark. In breezy yet still humid conditions Harriers speedster Dean Williamson led the way with a thrilling victory in the elite race, holding off the chasing pack to secure the gold medal in a time of 14:52.  Dean was backed up by excellent runs from James Morley (15:44) and Jason Gunn (16:24, MV40 Silver) as Harriers’ men also swept to the team trophy.  The women were also dominant as in-form Lydia Callan ran a mature race... read more

Colchester Harriers athletes were in top form when competing at the Essex 10K held at the Braintree track on Friday evening. A star run once again came from the in-form young Lizzie Wellsted who finished strongly with a class time of 34.31 to take Gold Medal in the U20 section, the evergreen Colin Ridley dug deep to finish 1st in his Over 60's section with an excellent time of 36m 58s; Lydia Callan running her third race in seven days maintained a consistent pace to finish her race 1st in the senior Lady section 38m17s to win gold, the hard working Laura Shewbridge gave 100% to win gold in... read more

Colchester Harriers turned a corner of Suffolk forever green as they journeyed up the A12 in numbers to compete in the Ipswich Ekiden Relays, held this year in the grounds of Ipswich School in Wolverstone.  The green vests fielded an impressive 12 teams in the senior event, which involves teams of six combining to cover the marathon distance on a grass circuit, and despite being up against the strongest clubs from across East Anglia the club enjoyed more than its fair share of success, with seven of its sextets ending up on the podium in their respective categories. The women had... read more

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