Colchester Harriers crack Under 15 Girls team lead the way at the Essex County Cross Country Relay Championships, storming home at the season’s first major cross-country meeting to take the gold medal by a margin of over a minute. Lyla Belshaw got the trio off to a flying start, running 12:08 for her leg, Lily Tyler then extended the team’s lead with her run of 13:21 before Isla Widdowson saw the team home with a fast finishing 12:40. It was a performance which capped off a good day all round for the green vests junior section which, fielding a team in all of the categories also managed fourth place in the U17 Girls and fifth in both the U13 Boys and Girls competitions.

In the senior competition after good legs from Denise Morley and Sarah Stradling, Lydia Callan ran one of the fastest women’s legs of the day but the team just missed out on a medal finishing narrowly behind Havering and Springfield in fifth position. The senior men’s quarter of Ram Osman, Chris Sellens, Adrian Mussett and Max Caulfield also finished fifth, with the B team 14^th, the C team 21^st and the D team finishing in 29^th position whilst the Harriers Mixed Team came home in a creditable sixth position.

On the roads Jerry Walder ran a superbly paced race to clock a Personal Best (PB) of 3:03:19 at the Berlin Marathon, with Ryan Day finishing the skating event held on the course at the same time in 1:47:44. Back in the UK Tracy English, competing for England at the Bristol 10K, continued her rich vein of form to run a well-paced 38:51 (PB) to finish just outside the top 3 in her age group whilst even nearer to home Matt Thomas ran 1:22:35 (PB) to finish sixth in the Maldon Half Marathon with Jon West clocking 1:40:39.

Finally, in trail racing Chris Panton completed the Rose Ramble in 1:19:11 whilst, despite having some navigational issues, Louise Yates and Fran Norris finished the Mayflower Half-Marathon in 2:16:00.

Essex County Cross Country Relays Results:

Men: 5^th – Colchester Harriers A (Ram Osman, Chris Sellens, Adrian Mussett, Max Caulfield) 1:32:53; 14^th Colchester Harriers B (Robert Smith, Harry Swinbourne, Daniel King, Dan Widdowson) 1:43:03; Colchester Harriers C (Tim Ballard, Simon Colclough, Darrel Williams, James Waterson) 1:52:20; 29^th – Colchester Harriers D (Simon Morgan, Dan Meecham, Gary Licence, Ian Rattray) 2:02:30.

Women: 5^th – Colchester Harriers A (Denise Morley, Sarah Stradling, Lydia Callan) 1:26:13.

Mixed: 6^th – Colchester Harriers A (Lily Gilby, Chris Sellens, Dan King, Ellie Cumner) 1:52:22.

U13 Girls: 5^th Colchester Harriers A (Sophie Lee, Ella Licence, Poppy Clarke) – 47:31.

U15 Girls: 1^st – Colchester Harriers A (Lyla Belshaw, Lily Tyler, Isla Widdowson) – 38:10.

U17 Girls: 4^th – Colchester Harriers A (Maisy Wood, Amy Brown, Rachel Sale) – 47:39.

U13 Boys: 5^th – Colchester Harriers A (Stanley Mason, Myles Martell-Smith, Rohan Dasoar) – 41:21.

U15 Boys: 10^th – Colchester Harriers A (Hugo Smith, Luca Nash, Finley Greenleaf) – 42:33.

U17 Boys 7^th – Colchester harriers A (Jake Phillips, Sean Eales, Harrison Leek) – 38:45.