It was a great day for Harwich as the county’s finest gathered to take part in the first running of the Essex County 5km Road Relays in the area.

More than a dozen of the county’s athletic teams sent a total of 172 runners to take on a route largely centred around the promenade.

There were six categories with the Male Open consisting of four legs of 5km each and the rest of three legs.

In the male open category, Southend came out on top by 45 seconds from Springfield Striders.

The Southend team consisted of Chris McGurk (16m 27s), Jo Range (17m 49), Ollie Kyridiades (16m 30s) and Rhys Gillard (16m 47), whose times which totalled 1h 7m 33s.

Harwich were a good sixth out of 11 with Steve Burbidge (18m 48), Sam Gooding-Matthews (17m 28s), Graeme Knott (17m 13s) and Rob Reason (17m 12s) giving a combined time of 1h 10m 40s.

A second Harwich team of Will Roxby-Clarke (21m 53s), Matt Doran (21m 3s), Kieran Callaghan (24m 29s) and Simon Day (18m 59s) finished tenth.

The Male V40 category was won by a Havering trio of Steve Rand (16m 58s), Simon Hart (17m 22s) and Matt Bland (17m 33s) with a time of 51m 52s, just ahead of Springfield and Ilford.

This popular category saw 15 teams competing and the Harwich teams of Robin Brookes (18m 44s), Colin Locke (21m 52s) and Andre Besant (20m 15s), and Nick Beals (20m 48s), Steve Kent (21m 17 of 15s) and Dennis Warner (22m 49) were 10th and 13th respectively.

In the MV50 category, Colchester Harriers were victorious with Martyn Clarke (19m 40s), Colin Ridley (18.01) and David Wright (19.30) combining for a total time of 57m 10s, two minutes clear of Thurrock in second.

Harwich were third out of seven with Peter Clarke (21m 05s), Bill Haining (20m 26s) and Mark Rutter (19m 04s) finishing in a time of 1h 35s.

The fastest 5km leg of the day went to Havering’s Rob Walker in 16m 10s.

Malcolm Muir of Ilford was next fastest (16m 20s) followed by Colchester’s Chris Sellens (16m 22s) In the ladies’ open, Colchester Harriers won in a combined time of 58m 17s.

Lead runner Nicola Rogers finished in an impressive 18m 19s, which was the fastest time by any lady on the day and was supported by Rebecca Cooke (20m 38s) and Joanna Hudson (19m 20s).

Southend were second with a second Colchester Harriers team showing their strength in depth in third.

In the FV35 category, the team from Saffron came through in first place with Rebecca White, Janet Lipski and Fiona Halls completing the course in 1h 2m 10s.

Harwich were second in this group with Madeline Lewis finishing the first leg fourth (21m 53s), Becky McCorquodale held that place (21m 42s) before Kate Hodgkiss produced the fastest leg of any lady in this age bracket (19m 29s) to lift the team two places to second.

In the FV45 age, Colchester Harriers were clear winners by six minutes with a consistent trio of Melissa Dowell, Debbie Cattermole and Denise Morley.

Harwich were again second with Claudine Tisbury (20m 59s), Sharan Ryder (24m) and Elspeth Knott (23m 34s).