HARWICH Runners Elspeth Knott and Mark Lloyd struck gold at the European Duathlon Championships, in Spain.

The competition involved a 5k run, followed by a 40k bike ride and a 10k run.

And reigning world and European champion Knott retained her age group title for another year, finishing in three hours, four minutes and 36 seconds.

It was her eighth European win and she has been world champion six times.

In a very competitive 45 to 49-year-age group, Lloyd, who has finished seventh on two previous occasions, was up against 33 other athletes.

Finishing fourth fastest on the 5k run, it was his bike time that put him in good medal position.

His time of 1h 13m 44s was the fastest of all competitors and then a quick transition and 10k run in 37m 31s put him in the lead.

Second place overall went to Spaniard Francisco Blazquez Hernandez and his time of 2h 14m 19s was over a minute slower than Lloyd's 2h 13m 6s.

Over a thousand competitors took part, representing 18 countries, at the prestigious event in Soria, near Madrid.

Great Britain had the biggest number, with 473 representatives.

Meanwhile, running one marathon is challenging enough but running his second marathon of the year was Paul Brown.

After recording a personal best of 3h 48m at Manchester a month ago, he managed a very respectable 4h 1m at Milton Keynes on Bank Holiday Monday.

There was also a half-marathon on offer at the flat Milton Keynes venue.

Aaron Rudkin took up that option, finishing well in 1h 33m 32s, quicker than his heat-affected time at Torremolinos earlier in the year.

Running his fourth half-marathon of the year was Jez Downs and he posted 2h 9m 3s.

At the Witham five-mile race, Harwich Runners provided the chip timing for this popular event which had 338 runners.

Justin Cooper Keeble finished 41st in another good time of 33m 32s with Kieran Callaghan following in 38m 18s.

Harry Young recorded his fastest time yet since joining Harwich Runners with 37m 25s.

Michelle Cooper-Keeble posted a quicker time than her recent outing at Sudbury in 47m 55s while Anna Young managed 48m 24s.