RACHEL Sweatt brought home individual gold and led Witham Running Club's ladies to team silver medals with a stunning performance at the Essex Half Marathon Championships in Pleshey.

She claimed ladies' victory with a run of one hour 25 minutes 49 seconds that was a full three and a half minutes ahead of her closest challenger.

Along with Sweatt's individual county gold, her run helped Witham's ladies to collect Essex team silvers as Angie O’Shea finished 12th in 1h 37m 58s in her first half-marathon and Liz Stuckey was 15th in 1h 40m 45s.

Witham ladies currently sit joint top in the Essex Championship Series table, leaving the final ten-mile race at Stebbing to decide who will take the trophy home.

And there was further glory for Witham as Mark Austin picked up the club's second gold medal of the day by winning the Male V60 category in a time of 1h 35m 30s.

First home overall for Witham was David Hunt in 1h 21m 13s with another fine performance, another personal best (PB) - one of nine for the club at the event - and another Witham Gold Standard time.

RESULTS: David Hunt 1:21:13 (PB), Heydon Mizon 1:23:35, Leo Cole 1:25:25, Rachel Sweatt 1:25:49 (PB), Sean Darney 1:26:00 (PB), Giles Sowerby 1:28:27, Owen Dare 1:29:07 (PB), Andrew Lager 1:29:35 (PB), Chris Martin 1:30:05, Pete Riley 1:33:33, Kevin Harper 1:34:41, Mark Austin 1:35:30, Angie O’Shea 1:37:58 (PB), Liz Stuckey 1:40:45, Hayley Ellen 1:43:42, Alex Stuckey 1:44:12, Gerry Greenwold 1:45:12, Nik Bainbridge 1:46:50 (PB), Danny Conner 1:48:39 (PB), Lee Blake (PB), James Montgomery 1:51:52, Rebecca Booty 1:53:12, James Kennerley 1:54:23, Steve Hennings 1:55:31, Paul Hedger 1:59:28, Rachel Pearsons 1:59:29, Louise Pascoe 2:02:02, Dan Berry 2:04:44, Ross Silverton 2:05:06, Heydeh Safavy 2:16:16, Sasha Rush 2:17:28, Tracey Denby 2:21:59, Emma Sweeney 2:21:59, Martina Byrne 2:28:53, Penny Clarke 2:32:27, Kayleigh Carr 2:35:50.

Meanwhile, David Campbell and Gavin McClure donned the black and gold of Witham in the Great East Half Marathon held at Ipswich.

Campbell finished in 1h 31m 54s and McClure in 1h 47m 31s.

Another two Witham runners travelled to the Robin Hood Half-Marathon in Nottingham, with James Crisp running a PB of 1h 26m 16s and David Toombs coming home 45 seconds over the two-hour mark.

Dawn Shilling completed her ninth Half Marathon in her challenge to run 13 half marathons in 12 months when she tackled the Folkstone Rotary Half Marathon.

She ran 2h 5m and has just three half marathons and one full marathon to complete her challenge for the three small Princes Charities that she works for.