ON Saturday, Thurrock Harriers played host to the first Essex League Cross Country race of the season. The event itself was held at One Tree Hill, in Langdon Country Park. Nine Harlow AC runners were involved and only the U15 boys were able to compete as a team.

Ben Tucker was the sole U13 Boy. He ran a very good race to finish eleventh in a forty-eight boy field and his time was 12.37 for the just over 3k distance. Abigail Cowling was another solo runner, this time at U17 level. She was twentieth of twenty-two finishers and a further six did not complete the distance.

There were two U15 girls, Isla Garrett and debutant Sylvia Dolphin. Garrett was fifteenth and Dolphin twenty-third in a thirty-eight girl field. Olivia Forrest, of Brentwood Beagles was the clear winner but from second to fifteenth was a gap of just a minute and racing at this age group will be interesting in the matches to come.

Harlow’s most notable performance came as a team in the U15 Boy’s event. George Watkins was the best finisher in fourth and it was quite a tussle to the funnel, with Watkins edged out of third by just two hundredths of a second. He completed the distance in 13.38 minutes.

Next Harlow runner home was Manny Richards. He was fifteenth and ran the course in 15 minutes exactly. Kamal Ricketts was the third Harlow athlete to cross the line and he was twenty-fifth. Thomas Graham and Daniel Hundley were twenty-ninth and thirtieth respectively. Graham recorded a time of 16.37 mins and Hundley 17.02 mins.

With a scoring quartet, the U15 Harlow boys’ performances placed them third in the team standings, behind a traditionally strong Chelmsford and Havering. There is a week’s rest before back-to-back fixtures at Basildon and Colchester respectively.