Colchester Harriers athletes came home weighed down with precious metal as they continued their strong start to the road racing season at the Essex County 10 Mile Championships in Witham.

Once again Harriers’ strong women’s squad led the way with the A team of Heidi-Hogan Steele (1:02:25, individual silver), Lucy Davies (1:04:04, individual bronze) and Victoria Primmer (1:05:11, 5^th overall) pipping a strong Springfield Striders trio to the team gold medal, with Steele and Primmer each recording a Personal Best (PB) in the process.  The victorious trio were closely followed home by their team mates in the “B” team with Jennifer Lovelock (1:06:20 PB, 7^th), Justine Sheekey (1:07:44 PB) and Becky Cooke (1:08:07 PB) combining to take the team bronze.

The Green Vests’ men also had a day to remember as Jordan Middlemist (53:50 PB, 4^th overall), Chris Sellens (56:44, 9^th) and debutant Ryan Day (57:29) took the silver team medal with Dan Widdowson (57:57 PB, M40 bronze), Jason Gunn (58:13) and Mark McKeown (58:38) scooping the bronze.

There were a number of other individual medal winning performances by Harriers athletes on the day too as Colin Ridley (59:25) took M60 gold, Kevin Higgins (1:01:23 PB) M50 gold, Paul Dellar (1:04:57) M55 bronze and Jenny Richardson (1:22:18) F60 silver.

Elsewehere a number of Harriers were in 10K action with the evergreen Adrian Mussett continuing to shine as he won his first race as a V50 in the incredible time of 32:06, over a minute quicker than anyone else in the UK in his age group has run this year.  Sarah Stradling continued her return to form with 41:41 with Anita Mussett crossing the line in 48:25, whilst at the Vitality 10,000 in London Louis Davey clocked 35:05, Jack McGuire36:35 (PB), Barry Frost an evenly paced 37:02 (PB) and Jen Rudman 55:50.

Finally on the roads, and not to be outdone, Dean Williamson raced home in 14:35 in the Cardiff 5K, beating his previous best time by over 30 seconds to finish 9^th overall whilst on the trails Matt Thomas won the Suffolk Cost Heritage Trail half-marathon in a time of 1:26:07.

A number of emerging Harriers track and field stars were also busy representing their universities at the British Universities Championships held this year in Chelmsford.  Philippa Davenall, representing Essex University, took silver in the hammer event with a throw of 56.73m, having thrown 61.08 in qualifying whilst Rebecca Jeggo (also Essex University) ran 24:44 to finish fourth in the 200 metres.  For the men, Akin Akinboh (Loughborough) ran 10.83 to finish 5^th in the 100 metres semi-final (having run 10.77 in the heats) whilst the in-form Charlie Dobson led off the Loughborough team that took the gold medal in the 4 x 400M relay in a record time of 3:05:11.

Essex 10 mile Championships – results in full:

Women:  Heidi Hogan-Steele 1:02:25 (PB, 2nd), Lucy Davies 1:04:04 (3^rd), Victoria Primmer 1:05:11 (PB, 5^th), Jennifer Lovelock 1:06:20 (PB, 7^th), Justine Sheekey 1:07:44 (PB), Rebecca Cooke 1:08:07 (PB), Emma Burgess 1:08:19 (PB), Jenny Richardson 1:22:18 (2^nd F60), Tina Southgate 1;23:39.

Men: Jordan Middlemist 53:50 (PB, 4^th), Chris Sellens 56:43 (9^th), Ryan Day 57:29 (10^th), Dan Widdowson (57:57 (PB, 3rd V40), Jason Gunn 58:13, Mark McKeown 58:38, Colin Ridley 59:25 (1^st V60), Mark Howard 1:00:10, Andrew Lovelock 1:00:47 (PB), Kevin Higgins 1:01:23(PB, 1^st V50), Keith Marley 1:02:46), Simon Ford 1:04:57 (PB), Paul Dellar 1:04:57 (3^rd V55), Carlos Catalan 1:05:03 (PB), Daniel Meecham 1:07:53, Lee Holohan 1:11:47.