Colchester Harriers’ senior men’s team cross country team took on some of the best clubs in the country at the South of England Cross Country Championships, finishing in a highly creditable 23rd place.  Ram Osman was first home for the club, completing the challenging 8.5 mile Parliament Hill course in 54:02 to finish in the top 100 in a top class field of more than a 1,200 runners.  Chris Sellens crossed the line in 175th followed by Cameron Humphries who finished in 228th, despite losing a shoe in the mud.  Dan Widdowson was next, in 271st, followed by Andrew Jobling in 328th with Jon Nears completing the scoring team in 407th place.  Other Harriers senior men finishers were Paul Rodgers (415th), Michael Smith (440th), Gavin Scanlon (540th), Colin Ridley (546th) and Kieran Callaghan who came home in 1109th in his debut in the event, whilst Fergus Crouch ran strongly to take 111th position in the under 20s race.

Elsewhere Harriers’ endurance athletes were competing in gruelling off-road ultra-marathon distances with Pete Jones running 4:45:28 over 50K in the Flitch 12 hour challenge and veteran Martyn Clarke finishing the Waterway 30 mile in Nottinghamshire in 5 hours and 3 minutes.  Victoria Primmer ran the still tough, if slightly shorter, off-road Hadleigh Legacy 10K in 58:41 whilst Mel Dowell continued her run of trail racing success running 1:00:45 to finish second female in the 6 mile Hart to Hart event in Stebbing, with John Carter coming home in 1:07:39

In Parkrun action 19 Harriers finished at Colchester Castle with Ian Jeffries eighth in 18:59, Rob Cronshaw tenth in 19:21 and Lizzie Wellsted first female in 20:58 whilst across town at Highwoods Russell Goodridge ran 20:57 for second place with Sean Duffett third in 22:06.  Will Radley showed signs of a return to his best with 18:15 and fourth place at Chelmsford, Adam Gerrish was sixth at Wetherby in 19:38 whilst Ella Jeffries was third female at Crystal Palace in 21:14.