Frost wins Paras 10

Barry Frost strode to victory in the Paras 10 held from Abbey Fields and taking in a host of terrains including stream crossings in what is now an established Colchester event. Harriers Alex Sales, Ian Haw and Natasha Rice, were also well to the fore.

The Cader Idris Fell race held in Dolgellau in mid Wales is a real test with the summit of the mountain of Idris the half way point of this tough 12 mile event. The three intrepid Harriers Richard Flutter, Debbie Cattermole and Becky Cooke made it to the misty summit and then completed the reverse downward run back to the town.

In Finland the Helsinki half marathon was held in very warm weather. Veteran Paul Dobson clocked a good 1h 27m.

The British Masters Open Road Relays championships were held at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham on Saturday and the club had teams entered in three men’s age groups. Sadly, the over 55 team, who were one of the favourites for the race, were held up for more than two hours in a traffic pile up on the M1 and missed their race. This left the six man over 35 and 4 man over 45 teams to represent the green vests in a very high class affair. The over 35 team came 9th out of 35 teams, a very good performance. The over 45 team came 10th. The Harriers teams were made up of Paul Dellar, Paul Rodgers, Andy Lovelock, Doug McGilvarry, Ged McMillan, Jason Gunn, Keith Marley, Allen Smalls, Nath Filer and Mark McKeown. Senior coach Richard Pickering did a fine job to prepare the teams for such a prestigious event.

At Maningtree Richard Heath won the 5km race. Malcolm Statham 43m 35s, and Richard Millward were both high finishers in the 10km race. At the Woodbridge 10km Simon Miller ran 45m 23s on a hilly course.

Cheryl Appleby and Jackie Gunther both completed the Colchester Zoo 10km in good times.

Park run news

Angus Holford, 17m 38s and Alexandra Hennessy 22m 35s swept to victory in the Highwoods Park run. Andrea James was runner up for the ladies in 23m 04s. Kevin MacAlinden was 4th overall in 21m 07s. David Wright was 6th in a new Veteran 60 record of 21m 33s. There was a top ten finish for junior athlete 11 year old Finley Greenleaf who was 10th in 22m 25s, a new PB for the Highwoods event. Rachel Richardson-Wright ran 32m 41s, her fastest Highwoods time. Other Harriers finishers were Harrison Leek, Jenny Richardson, Michael Burrows and James Plant.

The Colchetser Castle Park Run saw Jon Nears 2nd in 17m 52s, Fergus Crouch was 4th in 18m 54s and Ian Jeffries 5th in 19m 27s. Junior runner Lizzie Wellsted won the ladies race in 23m 29s. Other Harriers finishers were Sean Duffett, Richard Boden, Richard Millward, Tim Comer and Lee Caulfield.

Wayne Cook clocked 18m 10s to win the Harwich Promenade event.

Rob Cronshaw was 4th in 18m 55s and Chris Sellens 5th in 19m 00s at the Cudmore Grove event. Jordi Moat was runner up in a great time of 20m 49s.

Heidi Steele was runner up at the Maldon Promenade event in 19m 34s with Gavin Laws 3rd overall in 18m 40s.

Rachel Rodgers also ran well at the Dolgellau Park run.

Other News

Lee Holihan and Louise Yates did well in the Nucular assault course race held near Brentwood, while Rachel Richardson-Wright completed the Eton Dornay (Windsor) sprint triathlon in a best for the course of 1h 42m 42s.

The Ipswich Twilight 5km races run on Saturday 11th May brought some of the best runners in Britain to the line and saw 12 runners beat 14 minutes with winner Nick Goolab clocking 13m 34s. Harriers runners competed well with Ed Mitchell 49th in 15m 40s leading the way followed by Nath Filer 15m 56s, Angus Holford 16m 09s, Danny Millward 16m 31s, Paul Rodgers 17m 13s, Fergus Crouch 17m23s, Keith Marley 17m 50s, James Waterson 18m 00s, Simon Ford 18m 18s, Richard Flutter 18m 32s, Tim Ballard 18m 44s, Adam Gerrish 18m 57s, Rebecca Cooke 19m 14s, Andy Taczynski 19m 26s and Helen Taczynski 20m 38s.

Barry Frost, winner of the Paras 10.

Richard Flutter appears out of the mist on Cader Idris

Becky and Debbie on Cader Idris

Becky Cooke had a good race at the Ipswich Twilight 5k.