SATURDAY was the 200th time a Parkrun has been held in Harwich.

The weekly 5k event attracted a record number of finishers.

The previous record of 176 finishers was beaten by quite a margin to set a new high of 188.

Those who took part enjoyed early-spring sunshine and almost no wind.

First finisher was Harwich Runner Robert Reason and his time of 16m 42s was a new best (PB).

Second and third finishers were also club members.

Archie Barrington was second in 18m 17s, also claiming a new PB.

Simon Harrison has been absent while focussing on half-marathon training since January.

His time of 18m 35s gave him third place and his quickest at Harwich since last September.

The first club lady finisher was Madeline Lewis, in second place, and her time of 21m 15s was her quickest here since July 2016.

Third and fourth females were also club members.

Ellie Burke was third in a PB time of 21m 51s, closely followed by junior star Daisy Ward, in 21m 52s.

It was her third PB in as many weeks.

The good conditions produced a total of 54 PBs for the record number of finishers.

A number of them were club members.

Alan Gardner knocked a further 13 seconds off his best set only a week previously to record 20m 46s.

Anthony Gillies has also set two PBs in two appearances.

His new best is now 25m 43s.

Christina Pretty has run 127 times at the local event and the last time she set a PB was January 2018.

On Saturday she achieved a 25-second new best to finish in 27m 29s.

In contrast, Julian Cordwell was only running his third time at the event but his time of 30m 27s was also a PB for him.

Not to be outdone, wife Carol also set a new PB.

There was a new PB for Kim Pretty, of 22m 17s, his second in March, and a 19-second improvement.

Junior member Jack Manley improved by over two minutes to finish in 27m 1s in his sixth Parkrun.

While so many set a new best, some came frustratingly close.

One of those is Valentina Burley, who has been training for Sunday’s Manchester Marathon.

Although she has been doing the long training runs required to run the 26.2 miles for a marathon, she has set two new bests so far this year.

Her time on Saturday of 24m 55s was only four seconds off her best which must be encouraging for next weekend's result.

On a quiet weekend of racing, two Harwich Runner members travelled to Braintree and formed part of the crowd of almost 500 runners tackling the popular five-mile race there. Harry Young completed the distance in 42m 13s to claim 272nd place while Tracey George finished in 63m 22s.