Colchester Harriers took a large squad to the Great Bentley Half Marathon on Sunday and made light of the difficult conditions with a string of impressive performances.

Leading the way was Rosie Wild, the long-distance specialist putting in her trademark brave performance to take the winning tape in a time of 1:20:13, over a minute clear of her closest rival.  Rosie was well backed up by Kate Creak, who finished strongly to claim an excellent fifth place (1:26:03) and Heidi Hogan-Steele – continuing her comeback from the birth of her daughter with a courageous 1:30:20.  Other female finishers were Lily Gilby, returning from injury to run a well-paced 1:42:40, Sofie Samuelson (1:47:16), Emma Warren (1:49:08), Susan Waller-Toyne (1:56:18) and Nikki Osborne (2:02:17).

Cameron Humphries was the first Harriers’ man to cross the line, posting a new Personal Best of 1:16:24 to finish in a fine twelfth place overall.  Jason Gunn also ran strongly to record 1:16:52, finishing fifteenth (3rd V40) with Chris Sellens the third man home for the club in 1:19:05.  Dan Widdowson clocked 1:20:27, Chris Edwards 1:20:36 (PB), with Colin Ridley winning the V60 category in a time of 1:20:41.  Brendan Donnelly was next in 1:22:42, Chris Pugh ran 1:23:32 and in his first race for nearly a year after a lengthy injury lay-off, Paul Mingay came home in a remarkable 1:24:43 to finish 1^st V65.  Dean Semple ran 1:26:07 on his debut for the club, Simon Ford 1:26:23, Kev Higgins 1:26:57, with Jerry Walder (1:28:32), Gary Licence (1:28:49), Simon Colclough (1:28:58), Chris Stevenson (1:29:35 – 2^nd V65), Darrel Williams (1:29:54) and Dan Summersgill (1:29:56) all making it home in under 90 minutes.  Other Harriers finishers were Kev Stevens (1:36:37), James Plant (1:38:53), Jonathan West (1:54:02) and Dean Wicks (1:58:29).

Elsewhere, there were also notable successes for the green vests at the British Masters 10K at Goodwood, with Adrian Mussett running 31:40 to take the M50 title, Roanna Vickers posting 35:48 (PB) to take the F35 silver medal and Dianne Wooller running 51:25 to finish fifth F70.  Ben Whyte was also in action, running 1:14:24 (PB) to finish fifth in a field of over 1,300 runners at the Watford Half Marathon.