COLCHESTER Harriers' men were in dominant form at the Dedham ten kilometre race.

The Green Vests filled six of the first seven places, with great runs from the up and coming Ramadam Osman and Ermeas Aferwerki.

Osman strode away from the gun to have a massive lead at the finish of three minutes.

He won in a course record time of 32 minutes 31 seconds on what is a difficult and hilly course.

Seventeen-year-old Aferwerki was runner-up with a personal best (PB) of 35m 27s, as he led the charge behind Osman.

Making up the top three was Richard Heath (35m 39s), who claimed the first veteran over 40 prize.

Alex Sales (fifth, 38m 23s), Rob Smith (sixth, 38m 40s) and Gavin Scanlon (seventh, 39m 02s) also had good runs.

Then came Adam Garrish (19th, 42m 08s) and Dan Beard (20th, 42m 50s, PB) while Malcolm Statham was third in the 3km race.

The Essex half marathon championships at Pleshey saw Ed Mitchell take silver, finishing runner-up in a superb time of one hour 12m 40s.

Colin Rifley took the over 50 silver in 1h 22m 40s, just missing gold by four seconds.

Chris Sellens pulled up with cramp but still passed the the line in 1h 23m 37s - also finishing were Chris Manby (1h 30m), Andrea James (1h 32m), Paul Preston (1h 32m), Dan Wilkinson (1h 39m) and Simon Miller (1h 40m).

At the Olympic Park 5km, Richard Flutter ran a stormer finishing tenth and first veteran over 50 in 18m 25s.

The round of park runs saw Jason Gunn run a tremendous race to win at the tough Colchester Castle to clock a best-ever 16m 52s.

Other front runners were Ian Haw (fourth, 18m 35s), Tim Ballard (fifth, 18m 56s) and Gavin Scanlon (seventh, 19m 33s).

Simon Ford was 11th in a new best of 20m 10s.

At Harwich, Alex Sales led the green vests home in third spot (18m 36s), ahead of David Wright who was fifth in a new Harwich over-60 record of 19m 44s.

Charlie Holohan cracked his best-ever time coming home in eighth spot in 21m 08s.

Fran Norris was in very good form with her best run for a while in 22m 42s.

The Mersea Cudmore Grove park run saw Richard Flutter runner-up in 19m 42s, with Ryan Williams continuing his improvement in 20m 47s for fourth spot and a new best-ever time.