Harriers great medal day kicks of Winter!

The beautiful warm sunny day at Hockley amazingly kicked off the Winter Cross Country season and thoughts were far away from freezing January competition where the hardy come to the fore.

Colchester Harriers were  on the day the best all round team with a glut of medals.

Juniors

The under 17 men earned a super silver set of medals, thanks to Charlie Everest, Oscar Dawson, and Jake Young, and were indeed only 20 seconds off the gold behind a strong Basildon team.

The junior girls competed bravely in a tough competition and were pleased with 14th spot thanks to Jasmine West, Hannah Rodgers, and Jasmine Marley.

Mixed Relays

The new category this year of mixed senior team (2 ladies, 2 men) saw Harriers take the inaugural gold medals, although pushed all the way by Thurrock Harriers over the 2.8 mile course. Mark Harrod 16.19, Becky Cooke 18-57, Denise Morley 18.23, and Colin Ridley 16.23 produced a brave show to become champions.

Ladies

The ladies saw a superb final leg by Sarah Stradling who was the fastest lady on the day to take silver medals , if the course was little longer then it would have been gold, but the team of Laura Shewbridge 18-21, Briony Downes 18-52, and Sarah Stradling 17-05 , were very happy with silver medals. The B team were 6th overall the best B team on the day. Great runs came from Annette Oakman 19-28, Debbie Cattermole 20-10, and a brave cold ridden Louise Glass 19-12. The C team finished 22nd of the 34 finishers and Helen Ivory 24-00, Becky Bjotter 27-30, and Sarah Sellens 21-27 did the green vests proud.

Men

The men had 5 teams out and it was good to see 50  teams take to the line.  The A team kept up the medal haul with Jon Nears 16-15, Chris Sellens 15-10, Carwyn Jones 15-51, and  a brave anchor leg by Daz Farrugi 15-35, gave the team the bronze medals in a close run race.

B team  14th Ged McMillan 16-14, Paul Rodgers 17-09, Tim Ballard 17-18, Keith Marley 17-35.

C team 25th James Waterson 19-13, Rob Gibby 17-43, Chris Manby 17-52, Andy Glass 19-01.

D team  29th  Simon Smith 20-10, Kevin Mcalinden 18-32, Russell Goodridge 17-49, Simon Morgan 20-39.

E team 30th Dave Gayor 20-18, Pat marsh 20-11, Richard Flutter 19-22, David Wright 18-26.

Other Results

The St Oswalds Way ultra saw Martyn Clarke 13th finisher in 5 hours 19minutes over the 33.2 mile course from Lindisfarne in the north East to Crasker on the coast a muddy off road affair.

Rachel Richardson –Wright smashed  her personal best time at the Eton Dorney Triathlon  clocking 1-30 for the 750m open water swim, 20km bike, and 5km road run.

Barry Shaw ran a personal best 1-1-3-17 at the Felixstowe 10 mile race.