COLCHESTER Harriers enjoyed their most successful-ever Ekiden marathon relay after chalking up quadruple victories.

Harriers boasted 15 senior teams and four junior teams at the event, with a record number of green vests competing in one competition.

A total of 200 teams took on the marathon distance, over six legs.

The only Ekiden title that had previously eluded Harriers in the past was the overall senior men's race, following five second-place finishes.

Harriers put it right this year, romping home ahead of home club Ipswich Jaffa, while Harriers' veteran over-40 team were third.

Harriers' senior team were always in the lead thanks to a great 7.2 km first leg by Ramadam Osman, before Chris Sellens produced the fastest five-mile leg on the day to extend their lead.

Adrian Mussett ran the fastest ten kilometre leg to clock a superb 33 minute time and give Harriers a time cushion.

And the final three Harriers runners - Danny Millward, Angus Holford and Adam Sawyer - kept to the finish line, clocking a time of two hours 24m over the grassed course.

Harriers' veteran 40 men were way ahead of the opposition and finished an impressive third overall, to claim a deserved category win.

The team consisted of Paul Rodgers, Mark Harrod, Richard Flutter, Richard Heath, Ged McMillan and Allen Smalls.

Making it a trio of Harriers men’s victories was their super-vets over 50 team who scorched to victory for the third consecutive year.

Richard Boden, Simon Smith, Colin Ridley, David Wright, Clive Thomas and Paul Spowage produced the good this time.

The new category of super-vet ladies saw a strong Harriers team make it four team victories.

The over-50 team of Debbie Cattermole, Denise Morley, Steph Horner, Anita Mussett, Jenny Richardson, and Fran Norris won the inaugural competition.

Harriers' senior ladies finished a fine third and were unlucky not to win, having to recover from a late team change due to a missing runner.

There were great runs from Laura Shewbridge, Samantha Hart, Lucy Mapp, Ella Neale, Helen Bloomfield and Becky Cooke.

Harriers' mixed team just missed out on medals after finishing fourth with John Fryer, Doug Mcgill, Sarah Sellens, Andrew Jobling and Fergus Crouch just missing out on third.

Nathan Filer produced a tremendous performance to win the Spitfire 24 hour Challenge, at Hornchurch park.

He ran 19 laps of the 9.16km circuit, to clock 175kms.

Harriers boasted both champions at the Essex 10km track Championship, at Braintree.

Laura Shewbridge ran a conservative race and won easily in 39m 18 seconds over the longest track race 25-lap distance.

Ramadam Osman ran a personal best (PB) of 32m 50s to beat team-mate Angus Holford (33m 18s) into second place.

Youngster Adam Sawyer produced another superb run, securing a fastest-ever run of 34m 01s to finish fifth, while Colin Ridley, Tom Cresswell, Ged McMillan and Richard Flutter also ran well.