IT has been a busy summer for members of Richmond and Zetland Harriers, with lots of events returning and parkrun back in full swing.

There was a a good turnout of harriers at Darlington 10K, while Pauline Whittaker continued with her track and field events, entering the NEMAA T&F match event five, competing on the track in the 100m with a time of 16.2s and 77.7s in the 400m, taking the first V55 place in both events. She threw 11.77m in the javelin, second place in the V55.

In match event six Pauline ran the 200m in 34.9s (first V55), the 800m in 2:55 (second V55) and threw the discus 12.38m for second place in the V55.

Adding to his first swim-run event, John Gray took part in the Loch Lomond Breca swim-run with an impressive time of 3:37:21 and second place in the solo event.

Midweek on Wednesday, August 18, the ever popular Sessay Swift 6K race at Thirsk returned and Rob Scott, in excellent form, came in first place overall in a time of 18:47 (new PB). He was closely followed by Carl Jones, who took third place and first in the M40 category, with a time of 19:38.

Following on from competing in the 5K and 10K events at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, honorary member Marc Scott returned to the UK to compete at the longer distance road events. First of these was the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on Sunday, August 29, which this year was a World Athletics Event attracting three full national teams, and runners from Africa, America, Europe, UK and Ireland. Marc ran a great race to finish in fourth place with a time of 60:35min. Joining him at this event was his brother Rob Scott, who had a fantastic run, describing it as "probably the best race in his running career to date", completing it in a time of 67.08, to take 29th in the elite race and setting a new PB by over two mins.

Into September and three seniors and one junior stayed local for the Paras ten-mile and junior two-mile at Catterick, which runs across the Army training grounds and is always a tough race. The first Harrier home was Gabriel Stewart in 1:08:05 and fourth place overall. Matilda Ellis completed the two-mile junior race is 13:53 for first place overall.

In the junior Great North Run, Tom O’Mahoney finished in 5th place with a time of 12:48, Ollie Middleton completed the course in 14:55 for 11th place and Phoebe Haw finished with a time of 17:44 for 23rd place.

The half marathon race on the Sunday which followed a new route starting and finishing in Newcastle, saw Marc Scott cap off an impressive year with a win, finishing just over the hour mark with a time of 1:01:22.

Saturday, September 18 saw the Snape 5K and 10K multi-terrain races take place, with a big turn out from Harriers members. Three juniors ran in the 5K race with all three taking the top positions, Ollie Middleton was first home in 20:56, followed by Shannon Robinson in second and 21:50, then Matilda Ellis next in 24:20 for third place.

In the 10K race six RZH runners finished within the top nine places, with the top three spots being filled by Jake Stephenson in first with a very impressive time of 33:50, next in was Ian Christon in second with 36:56 and third place was Steve Middleton in 37:51.

The same day John Gray travelled to the Lakes for the South Lakeland Cartmel 18K trail race, taking first place in a time of 1:23:54. More locally, Paul Ellis took on the 22-mile Wensleydale Wander and he finished in first place with a time of 3:07.