HARWICH Runners entered six teams across four categories at this year's Ekiden Relay, organised by Ipswich Jaffa.

The most successful in terms of places was the ladies' V35 team, who placed fourth in their category.

Becky McCorquodale organised the teams and got her own team off to a great start by finishing her 7.2km leg in 33 minutes and 22 seconds and taking fourth place.

Strong 5km legs from Claire Gooding-Matthews (24m 28s) and Penny Barrington (25m 22s) followed, alongside a pair of good 10km performances from Claudine Benstead (46m 32s) and Madeline Lewis (47m 3s).

Elspeth Knott brought the team home in fourth with a final 5km leg of 24m 6s.

Their total running time was 3h 21m.

The quickest Harwich team on the day was the men’s V40 team, whose combined efforts gave a final time of 2h 49m 42s. Mark Rutter led the charge on the first leg.

Mark Lloyd put in a very competitive 37m 58s 10km leg, in between good shifts by Andre Besant and Bill Haining. Another decent 10km leg followed by Robin Brookes before Steve Cooper clocked Harwich’s fastest 5km leg of the day in 19m 30s.

The men’s open team did well to record an overall time of 3h 34s.

The team included really good performances from Sam Gooding-Matthews on the opening leg and Archie Barrington on the final 5km leg.

The Brantham five-mile race didn’t prove as popular as usual this year with Harwich Runners members, with only five taking part.

Rob Reason ran a good 28m 20s and took second place in the race behind a very swift Andrew Rooke, of Ipswich.

The undulating and partly off-road course, coupled with the hot weather, meant times were a bit slower than usual. Recent recruit Chris Payne ran a solid 34m 20s to finish 17th while Matt Doran crossed the line in 38m 51s.

Peter Fraser-Hopewell, who was second in the MV60 category (40m 11s), and Paul Brown (40m 36s) were the others sporting black and white vests in the 182-strong field.

At Saturday’s Parkrun, there was 93 finishers - of which 18 were Harwich Runners.

The club had the first two finishers and the first lady position.

Mark Lloyd finished first for the seventh time in a PB time of 17m 57s.

There was also a PB for second-placed Simon Day, in 18m 29s, his fifth time of finishing in second place.

The fastest lady, finishing ninth overall, was Madeline Lewis, who also achieved a Parkrun PB of 20m 51s.

Lewis has finished first lady a total of ten times, more than any other competitor.

Parkruns are not just for fast runners and this Saturday marks the first birthday of the Harwich Parkrun.

In the year since the event started, 815 people have completed the 5km course (3.1 miles).

They have walked with dogs, pushed buggies, jogged and run round.

There have been 3,962 finishers, including members of 83 running and fitness clubs from all over the UK.

They are of all ages, from under-10s to over-75s, and they have returned week after week and got quicker.

Many of those who started out walking last August are now running the whole or part of the distance and 1,128 personal bests have been achieved since the event started.

Harwich Runners has seen 114 of its members take part and those members have competed 1,311 times.

Great Bentley Running Club has the second highest turnout, with 46 of their members taking part a total of 192 times.

All abilities are welcome, at 9am every Saturday morning, at Dovercourt Park.

The event is free to enter all you need do is register just once at the Parkrun website - www.parkrun.org.uk/register/

Print out a barcode and turn up any Saturday.