Colchester Harriers are attacking both the Senior Essex XC League and the Ellisons Sunday XC League with a view to winning both, and after a good runners up spot at One Tree Hill last week in the Essex League, defending champions Harriers scorched to victory over a muddy Gosfield Woods course in the first Sunday League fixture of the season. Ramadam Osman ran away from the field to win by a big margin as the green vests had all eight scoring men home in 23, while the ladies although struck by injuries and commitments had Sarah Stradling in fourth spot leading the four scoring team home in 21. The men were easily first, while the ladies second place gave Harriers a combined total of 3 pts, which was the same as last year’s runners up Ipswich Jaffa.  However, the aggregate scores of the twelve scorers saw Harriers home by a mile to take an early lead, with the next fixture at Hilly Fields, Colchester.

Pool A result: 1. Colchester Harriers 3pts (145pts), 2. Ipswich Jaffa 3pts (200pts), 3. Springfield Striders 7pts, 4. Witham 8 pts, Great Bentley 9 Pts, Hadleigh 12pts.

Our ladies finishing positions were Sarah Stradling 4th, Ella Jeffries 9th , Alexandra Hennessy 13th , Kate Sandercock 21st, Kate Gibson 29th, Rachel Taylor 36th, Jenny Richardson 48th.

Our men’s fiinish positions were Ramadam Osman 1st, Chris Sellens 5th, Andy Jobling 6th, Dan Widdowson 10th, James Wright 13th, Cameron Humphries 16th, Paul Rodgers 18th, Gavin Scanlon 19th, Thomas Palmer 23rd, Jon Nears 24th, Allen Smalls 26th, Robert Smith 30th, Kevin Higgeis 36th, Tim Ballard 38th, Russell Goodridge 48th, Rob Cronshaw 52nd, Alex Elliot 71st, David Hilson 73rd , Lee Holohan 77th, Mark Wellsted 87th, Chris Stephenson 93rd, David Wright 94th, John Hennington 96th, Ian Rattray 97th, Adam Smith 114th, James Plant 134th, Mark Wigley 138th, Michael Stych 146^th and Pat Marsh 160th.

The Junior event at Gosfield saw the green vests of Colchester Harriers soar to victory in the girls team race while the boys team finished fourth giving them second place overall.

The girls finishing positions Milly Presland 1st, Madeline Claydon 2nd, Emily Swan 4th, Lizzie Wellsted 5th, Isla Widdowson 11th, Emily Henderson 12th, Missy Buxton 14th, Emily McGill 18th, Daisy Bell 19th, Alice Begg 22nd. 

The boys finish positions were Thomas Colsell 2nd, Theo Gardiner 19th, William Long 20th, Henry Rutland 21st, Finlay Greenleaf 23rd, Charlie Parmenter 26th, Harrison Leek 27th, Harry Gillon 32nd, Christopher Irven 43^rd and Hayden Preston 45th.

The Yorkshire marathon saw a superb run of 3h 15m 22s by Jennifer Lovelock.

At the Chelmsford Marathon Nate Filer was a fine 4^th in 2h 45m.  In her debut in the marathon Heidi Steele clocked a superb time of 3h 03m 16s to finish as runner up in the ladies race.  Other good runs came from Malcolm Statham 3h 35m in his 221st marathon, Dan Wilkinson 3h 40m (PB), Mark Howard , Stefan Hogan 4h 14m, Victoria Primmer 4h 01m.

At the Exmoor multi terrain 15 mile event Chris Manby finished well up in the field.

Colchester Castle Park run saw a big field of 437 runners finish.  Ramadam Osman ran very well to win in 16m 38s, Cameron Humphries was third in 18m 12s, Ian Haws fifth in 18m 38s, while Ella Jeffries was runner up for the ladies in 21m 11s.  At the Highwoods Park run Laura Shewbridge 21m 53s  and Rachel Dale 22m 52s were the first two ladies home, with Sean Duffett third man in 21m 26s.