HARWICH Runners' Simon Day was the first finisher in Saturday's Harwich Parkrun.

He managed a new personal best time of 18 minutes and six seconds and was almost three minutes ahead of second finisher Joey Avenell.

Despite there being an important cross-country race the following day, 19 members took part, including Ian Cannon (fifth), Francis Mills (eighth) and Norman Gooch (ninth).

Club member Helen Benham made it three PBs in a row and her time on Saturday was 27m 4s.

The second race in the 53-12 Cross-Country League took place on Sunday, with Harwich Runners hosting the event at Ramsey.

In the men’s race, Rob Reason was the highest-placed runner for Harwich, finishing third behind two runners from Ipswich.

Graeme Knott was also well placed inside the top ten, eventually taking seventh.

Day matched his best position from last year in 22nd, followed by Robin Brookes, in 40th, and Stephen Peck, who finished his cross-country debut in 50th.

Completing the scoring eight were new recruit Stuart Weaver, Mark Rutter and John Francis.

Turning out for the first time were James Olley, John Tiniakos, Scott Luckey, Mark Higgs and Gooch.

Overall, the men claimed fifth place

The ladies needed four to score and Kate Hodgkiss returned to cross-country action with a very good tenth place while Sophie Scott (14th) and Madeline Lewis (19th) both recorded strong positions.

Elspeth Knott closed out the scoring, taking 35th.

There were good performances by Penny Barrington and Alice Cole, while Anna Young made a promising debut for the club.

The ladies also claimed fifth and the combined total of the two teams was enough to give Harwich fifth place overall on the day.

The club currently sit in fourth place in Pool A.

In the accompanying junior race ran over a one-mile distance, Archie Barrington was first home for the hosts in 12th place.

Michael Knowles headed up a strong MU13 team, taking sixth in that age group.

Also featuring were Alexander McCreadie, Jude Hammond, Tony Greenwood, William Turner and James Cooper. Meanwhile, Eddie Cannons and Edison Barker had a good battle in the MU11 group, which also included Branden Howle and Gabriel Hammond.

In the girls' races, promising Daisy Ward finished seventh in the FU11 category, with Eleanor Newman and Bella Ward also going well.

Annabel Brookes and Isabella McCreadie had good runs in the FU13 age group.

The next race in the series takes place at Halstead on Sunday.

Elsewhere recently a number of runners completed the festive forest challenge, a trail run through Kings Forest near Bury St Edmunds.

In the 10km run, Andrew Thorn placed 24th in a personal best time of 63m 5s.

Paul Kerrison (67m 38s) and Clare McKenna (68m 31s) also tackled this distance.

Harry Young opted for the half-marathon distance, clocking 2h 46s to place 24th in that race while Anna Young recorded a time of 3h 35m 44s for 20 miles.