Ramadan Osman and Sara Bird celebrated individual victories at the final race in the NESS (North Essex & South Suffolk) Cross Country League, hosted by Halstead Road Runners at Gosfield School on a sunny Sunday morning.
An in-form Osman led home a field of 237 as his Colchester Harriers club confirmed their league title success with a fifth team win out of six races.
Bird, meanwhile, finished first lady for defending champions Ipswich JAFFA.
It was a rather unsettling start to the event, with the race actually having to be re-started when the field all went off course, due to a missing marshal early on.
However, this failed to distract Osman, who was away and clear.
Mark Finbow, of Witham Running Club, finished second and Chris Sellens, also of the Harriers, was third.
In the ladies’ race, Bird finished first ahead of the Colchester Harriers duo of Aiko Henington (second) and Helen Taczynski (third), with Tiptree Road Runners’ Danielle Harrington in fourth, followed by the Harriers’ double act of Debbie Cattermole (over-55) and Ella Neale.
Hadleigh Hares secured promotion to Pool A, by winning Pool B. They were spearheaded by Dan Widdowson, who finished a fine fourth at Gosfield School, backed up by Danny Preece in sixth.
Harwich Runners, by contrast, finished sixth in Pool A and so will be in Pool B next season, despite top-10 runs on Sunday by Robert Reason (fifth) and Graeme Knott (eighth).
Also in the top 10 were Harriers’ Ermeas Afewerki (seventh), Springfield’s Alex Manton (ninth) and Colchester & Tendring AC’s Freddy Richadson (10th).
TEAM RESULTS
Men: Pool A: 1 Col/Harr 142pts; 2 Springfield 225; 3 Gt Bentley 269. Pool B: 1 Hadleigh 161pts; 2 Tiptree 224; 3 Halstead 412.
Ladies, Pool A: 1 Col/Harr 16pts; 2 JAFFA 63; 3 Springfield 81. Pool B: 1 Tiptree 25; 2 Hadleigh 68; 3 Mid-Essex 147.
Combined teams, Pool A: 1 Col/Harr; 2 Springfield; 3 Gt Bentley; 4 Harwich; 5 JAFFA; 6 Witham. Pool B: 1 Hadleigh; 2 Tiptree; 3 Mid-Essex, 4 Halstead
Final league standings (after all 6 meetings);
Pool A: 1 Col/Harr 35pts; 2 JAFFA 25; 3 Springfield 20; 4 Gt Bentley 17; 5 Witham 15; 6 Harwich 14. Pool B: 1 Hadleigh 27pts; 2 Tiptree 25; 3 Halstead 18; 4 Mid-Essex 14; 5 CATS 6.
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