Eastern XC Championships
Senior Men
Colchester Harriers Men’s team surged to victory in the Eastern Cross Country Championships held over a tough 12000m course in bitterly cold weather and strong winds at Hilly Fields. The bitter winds made the going extremely tough but the green vests who are leading the Essex XC League were determined to take the gold medals. 2nd claim Harrier Angus Holford swept to victory with his team mates cascading in behind him. Daz Farrugi was in fine form just missing out on an individual medal in 4th spot. The over 40 duo of Allen Smalls 6th and Richard Heath 7th were next in to claim silver and bronze medals in their category. Paul Spowage was next in taking the over 50 silver, and the remaining team members were Paul Rodgers and Russell Goodridge, for Goodridge it was his first county or area medal in 20 years of running. Further good news was the 9 man team Eastern trophy was also won by Harriers with James Waterson, Simon Morgan, and Andy Raynor the proud winners along with the other 6 men. Pat Marsh just missed out but ran a brave race.
Senior Women
The ladies won silver team medals thanks to Denise Morley, Ella Neale, and Amanda Henry, with Morley also taking the silver over 45 medal. The next 3 ladies were unlucky to just finish out of the medals but all had excellent runs they were Debbie Cattermole, new signing Jo Martin , and Mellissa Dowell, then came Ellie Street, ( Silver under 20 ) and Beth Francis ( bronze under 20 ), running well to bring the team home were Fay Smalls and Rachel Richardson-Wright.
Junior Teams
The junior teams were also in the medals with the under 13 boys and under 15 boys both taking bronze medals. The under 13’s saw Ziggy Lambton take the individual silver in 2nd place, and he was joined in the bronze medal winning team by Noah Cox 17th and Matthew Wisdom 21st. The under 15’s were led home by Danny Millward 4th, then came Max Caulfield 7th, and Marcus Holmes 14th completed the bronze medal winning team, Joseph Boden missed out by a whisker in 15th place.
Hannah Rodgers was 16th in the under 13 girls with Grace Gardiner 18th. And for the under 17 boys Jake Young , Oscar Dawson, Max Williams , and Drew Olley, won team bronze. To round off a good day for the green vests.