SOUTHEND AC’s men’s team won gold at the Essex Road Relay Championships.

For the first time, the relays were held along the seafront in Harwich and the Southend squads unsurprisingly showed they felt quite at home alongside the ocean.

As well as the men’s team winning the gold medal, the senior women’s were silver medallists while the women’s over-35 squad finished third.

The winning men’s team was made up of Chris McGurk – whose time of 16m 27.19s around the 5km course was the fourth fastest overall – Joe Ray (17m 48.53s), Ollie Kyriakides (16m 30.33s) and Rhys Gillard (16m 48.78s).

The Seasiders’ B team (Lee Taylor, Adam Jordan, Dominic Le Mare and Charlie Scott) were seventh, the men’s over-40s (Al Monte, Tom Glover and Matt Gillard) were 14th and the men’s over 50s (Andrew Ralph, Michael Hodges and Stephen Jordan) were seventh.

The club’s elder statesmen Peter Binns (V65) also made an appearance, clocking 20m 58.36s.

The senior women’s team who came home with silver medals was made up of Sarah Jeffery (19m 41s), Annabel Matthews-Smith (21m 8s) and Claire Cornwell whose time of 19m 26.89s was the fastest leg.

The bronze medal winning over-35 team comprised Anne Jenkinson (20m 22s), Natasha Lagden (21m 14s) and Vanessa Mathers (21m 53s).

The senior women’s B team finished fifth courtesy of useful performances from Holly Gillard, Susan Brown and Collette Frampton.

Basildon AC sent one team to north Essex for the race, the senior men’s squad who just missed out on a medal.

Daniel Ashley (17m 4s), Stephen Strange (16m 50s), Dennis Cross (18m. 8s) and Adam Houchell (16m 51s) finished fourth.

Thurrock Harriers’ best performing team were the men’s over-50s who won silver medals.

Don Lawless (18m 30s), Michael Bumstead (19m 48s) and Bernard Johnson (21m 28s) made up the team.