Colchester Harriers’ athletes continued their run of success in this season’s Essex County Championship series with a show of strength at the 10 mile Remembrance Day race at Stebbing.

The women led the way sweeping both gold and silver in the team competition thanks to some stunning individual performances. Heidi Hogan-Steele ran a personal best (PB) at the distance for the second time in 5 weeks to take individual gold in a time of 1:02:24. Hogan-Steele was closely followed home by team captain Tracy English who came in third to take bronze in her own PB of 1:04:50 and Victoria Primmer who completed the gold medal winning team with her time of 1:05:35 (PB). The silver medal winning team comprised Jennifer Lovelock, who took a remarkable 3 minutes off her own PB to finish sixth in 1:06:32, Justine Sheekey who ran 1:10:12 (PB) to finish tenth and Rebecca Cooke who came in eleventh in yet another personal best performance of 1:10:44. Not to be outdone Nicola Hilson ran 1:17:15 (PB) to scoop individual silver in the FV50 category, and Hanna Banks and Rosanna Holden completed a memorable day for Colchester’s women runners with their own PB times of 1:20:12 and 1:22:10 respectively.

The men also had a good day with the trio of Mark McKeown (third and individual bronze in 56:56 – PB), Tom Cresswell (eighth in 58:05) and men’s captain Paul Mingay (eleventh and MV60 gold in 58:23) combining to take team bronze, with Mingay’s time being the second fastest recorded in his age group this year. Colin Ridley also had a good day, clocking 58:56 to take the MV55 gold medal, Paul Rodgers continued his return to full fitness with 1:03:48, Dave Hilson ran a PB of 1:09:18, closely followed by Charlie Holohan who clocked 1:09:19. Chris Stevenson was next up, finishing in 1:10:09 (PB), Malcolm Statham ran 1:10:36, Dan Macey 1:14:48, Dan Wilkinson 1:16:22 and Simon Miller 1:22:13.

Elsewhere Allen Smalls finished the 34.2 mile Gower Peninsular Ultra, including over 4,000 feet of ascent, finishing fourth in in a remarkable time of 5 hours and 4 minutes. Wayne Cook posted 43:21 at the Stowmarket Scenic Seven to finish 31^st in a field of nearly 500 and Tina Southgate and Mel Dowell ran The Hobble, the longest running trail race in Essex, completing the 14 mile course in a time of 2:21:34.