Colchester Harriers confirmed their place amongst the top echelon of the county’s running clubs in the latest virtually staged event – the Essex 6/12 Virtual Relay Competition.    Teams of twelve men and six women from the top running clubs across the county ran a series of legs of 5K and 5 miles either on their own or in small groups and then submitted evidence of their times to the organisers. 

Whilst running races in this way is far from ideal, athletes relished to chance to compete in a safe and responsible way and the battle for the top places was extremely fiercely contested.  Colchester Harriers Women A, helped by both junior runner Milly Presland and veteran Denise Morley winning their age groups, finished in a superb third place with a combined time of 2:21:23, just three minutes behind the winning Billericay team and less than a minute from second placed Havering.  The Harriers second female team also put in a strong showing with their time of 2:35:22 placing them sixth of the seventeen teams competing.

The Men also challenged with Chris Sellens, Richard Heath, Paul Mingay and Kevin Higgins all winning their individual age groups as the A team clocked 4:27:33 to just miss out on the podium by 3 minutes, finishing fifth, whilst the B team posted 4:56:32 to also make the top ten.

Full results as follows:

Harriers Women A – 3^rd overall.   5 mile legs: Laura Hubbard 29:29 (2^nd F35), Heidi Steele 32:30.  5K legs: Milly Presland 19:24 (1^st U17), Denise Morley 19:41 (1^st F50), Sarah Stradling 20:03 (3^rd F40), Jennifer Lovelock 20:16.

Harriers Women B – 6^th overall.  5 mile legs: Ella Jeffries 34:55, Eleanor Mayne 35:41.  5K legs:  Sarah Sellens 20:50, Annette Oakman 21:14 (2^nd F45), Samantha Hart 21:19, Ellie Cumner 21 :23, Helen Taczyinski 23:08.

Harriers Men A – 5th overall.  5 mile legs: Adrian Mussett 26:35 (2^nd M45), Nate Filer 26:38, Dean Williamson 26:38, Mark McKeown 27:50, Andy Jobling 28:00, James Wright 28:52. 5K legs:  Chris Sellens 16:36 (1^st M35), Richard Heath 16:43 (1^st M45), Paul Mingay 17:07 (1^st M60), Cameron Humphries 17:17, Colin Ridley 17:29 (1^st M55), Allen Smalls 17:48 (2^nd M50).

Harriers Men B – 10^th overall.  5 mile legs: Dan Widdowson 29:04, Kevin Higgins 29:22 (1^st M50), Jerry Walder 29:53, Paul Rodgers 30:27, Michael Smith 32:30, Tim Ballard 32:50.  5K legs: Victor Steinwand 17:59, Keith Marley 18:02 (3^rd M50), Jason Gunn 18:16, Gavin Scanlon 18:19, Andrew Lovelock 19:15, Chris Stevenson 20:35, Simon Morgan 22:56.