Springfield Striders have had some impressive displays on the roads of Essex in the last few years but none as dominating as on Sunday at the Halstead Marathon. The total haul of Essex medals on the day was 6 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze.

Paul Molyneux, who is in training for a 50km world trophy qualifying race in June slaughtered the 15 year old course record by 9 minutes with an impressive clocking of 2.29.12. Kate Mills became Essex Ladies Champion with a fine time of 3.08.22 just a few weeks after running the London. She also claimed gold in the over 35 category.

Another London runner, Gary Chandler, finished third in the race with a time of 2.42.31 which also earned him the silver in the over 40 age group. Tim Brockington and Chris Purse claimed silver and bronze in the over 50 category.

The club’s strength in depth really shone through when it came to the team medals with Paul Molyneux, Gary Chandler and Chris Pearce winning gold, Rob Mills, Jon Byford and Tony Hopwood winning silver and the clean sweep of men’s medals was completed by Ian Cardy, Paul Anderson and Julian Catmull winning bronze. Kate Mills, Helen Bateman and Paula Cardy won the silver medal in the ladies competition.

Also in the field of over 500 runners there were fine performances from Andy Stroud, Gary Joslin, Alan Ashton, William Day, Darran Hull, Caitriona Shanahan, Liz Irvine and Bob Gear.

In the Colchester Charity 10km the Striders’ only representative was Lee Martin who finished an excellent fourth in 35.06.