THE final race of the Friday five-mile series took place and, being based at Great Bentley, attracted more Harwich Runners than the previous four races combined.

In a fast race with around 400 finishers, the winner was Andrew Rooke, of Ipswich, in 24 minutes and 40 seconds.

The first Harwich Runner home was Rob Reason, who took sixth place in an excellent 27m 26s.

Mark Lloyd came agonisingly close to ducking back under the 29-minute mark in 2015 but managed it here by one second, leaving him just 10 seconds short of his personal best (PB) time set at Witham in 2014.

He finished 17th overall.

Bill Haining has run all five races in the series this year.

He already had three age category victories and one second place finish, making him uncatchable for the age group win.

He wrapped up a great series by finishing third at Bentley in 33m 5s

There were two age category wins on the night for Harwich.

Claudine Benstead posted 34m 39s to win the FV55 category and Ann Piercy ran her fastest time since 2014 (40m 1s) to finish first in the FV60 group.

A few runners made their five-mile race debut in Harwich colours.

Sebastian Keczmerski finished in 31m 39s while Hugo Jardim managed 33m 38s.

Scott Luckey has been a regular at the 5k distance recently and clocked 36m 48s.

Will Roxby-Clarke grabbed a one minute PB (34m 19s) and Francis Mills improved by 30 seconds to 35m 31s.

Kieran Callaghan knocked 90 seconds off his previous best (37m 42s) and Anne Herbert also managed a new PB, crossing the line in 42m 54s.

The biggest gain of the day, though, was Jeremy Downs, who, having never previously run the distance in less than 50 minutes, managed a great 45m 58s.

Elsewhere, Graeme Knott travelled to Newmarket to assist with the chip-timing and also ran the 10km race.

An excellent fourth place was achieved in a time of 36m 8s

This week at the Harwich Parkrun there was 106 runners, of whom 17 were first timers and 24 recorded new PBs.

This is the third time in a row the event has broken the 100-barrier.

Knott was the first male to finish in 18m 30s.

He used the run as a warm up for the Newmarket 10k the following day and it was his third win in a row.

Tim Brand was second in 18m 54s and Mark Rutter, also of Harwich Runners, was third in 18m 57s.

Harwich's Madeline Lewis was the first female to finish in 21m 13s - the ninth time in 14 appearances - while Katy O'Leary was second in 24m 22s, with a new PB, and Antoinette Wilson was third in 24m 24s.

There was another sub 20-minute finish for junior Archie Barrington.

This week he was sixth in 19m 55s, just four seconds off his best of 19m 51s.

Of the 24 club members who ran this week, two achieved personal bests.

Dennis Warner, who has run 40 of the Harwich Parkruns, reduced his best to 21m 36s and Zoe Orr, who has only run six times since starting in April, achieved a new PB of 32m 22s.