THE fifth and final race took place in the Harwich 5km series.

Over half the 99 runners in the main race were from the host club, Harwich Runners.

Run on a handicap system, the runner who managed to beat his predicted time by the biggest margin was Joe Francis.

The fastest runner on the night was Harwich’s Rob Reason, who clocked 17 minutes and eight seconds - just 12 seconds faster than Paul Mingay, of Tiptree Road Runners, who recorded the fastest age-related time.

In the ladies' race, Laura Shewbridge came out on top in a time of 19m 7s, while Madeline Lewis, of Harwich, had a fine race, ducking under the 20-minute mark for the first time ever with 19m 57s.

There were other new landmarks set, too.

Claire Gooding-Matthews managed a new personal best (PB) time of 22m 57s and Justin Cooper-Keeble produced his best-ever time of 20m 29s.

Others who finished with new PBs were Tracey George (28m 57s), Paul Brown (23m 16s), Michael Ball (25m 26s) and Philip Hutchings (22m 40s) Several runners recorded their best times of the year so far.

Kieran Callaghan is having a terrific year (22m 54), Andre Besant (19m 46s) and Bill Haining (19m 53s) have hit form and Dennis Warner managed his best time in three years (21m 41s).

Others with season-best times were Katie Holmes, Christina Pretty, Elspeth Knott, Shaun Tye and Phil Sanderson.

The overall series winners were John Gwillim and Great Bentley’s Rita Page, both of whom improved their times with each race.

Over the five races this year, 200 different runners competed.

In the junior race, run over one mile and also on a handicap system, the race winner was Annabel Brookes, who ran her fastest mile of the series, in 8m 41s.

Eddison Barker was the quickest boy on the night, in 7m 39s.

Daisy Ward recorded her best time of an impressive series, in 7m 43s, and was also the girls' series winner, just edging out Alexandria Burls and Eleanor Newman.

For the boys, Charlie Newman was the series winner, finishing ahead of Toby Perry and Harrison Cumner.

The series saw 23 different juniors participate On Saturday, the Harwich Parkrun was one year old and 146 people took part to celebrate the occasion.

It turned out to be a double celebration as both the male and female course records were broken.

First to cross the line was Angus Holford, of Woodford Green, in a time of 16m 40s, breaking the record held by Robert Reason, of Harwich, by three seconds.

The first lady was Laura Shewbridge, of Colchester Harriers, in 19m 24s. She was also the fifth finisher overall.

The second finisher was last week’s winner, Mark Lloyd, of Harwich Runners, in a time of 18m 15s and third was Dave Wright, of Colchester Harriers, in 19m 11s.

Of the 24 members of Harwich Runners who took part, only Bill Haining set a new PB.

Haining is enjoying a run of good results and his ninth position made him first in the 60 to 64 age group in a very impressive time of 20m 9s.