ATTRACTED by county championship medals, a huge field of nearly 400 runners ran at the Wroxham 5k race.Amongst those fighting the blustery wind were 18 North Norfolk Beach Runners.

ATTRACTED by county championship medals, a huge field of nearly 400 runners ran at the Wroxham 5k race.

Amongst those fighting the blustery wind were 18 North Norfolk Beach Runners.

Jim Hayes and Brenda Kinch, who both won their age groups and took home gold medals for their efforts. Jim crossed the line in a highly respectable 85th place overall whilst Brenda shaved six seconds off her pb in clocking 24 minutes.

Chris Merrylees was first Beach Runner home in a superb 17:04 for 17th place whilst Rob Kett interrupted his training for the brutal Snowdonia Marathon to record an excellent 17:45.

Just behind the two speedsters, John Christopher was nearly back to his best, finishing 39th in 18:33 whilst Darren Neale ran a comfortable 18:54 to finish 55th. Just eight seconds behind Darren was Richard Blake whose imminent birthday will soon make life tough in the 60 plus age group.

The fast improving Quintin Brown found a strong head-wind in the closing 2k hard work yet still clocked a pb of 19:21 in 71st.

Rob Emery continued to improve with a strong run to finish 162nd whilst the veteran Chris Southwell put in a quick second half of the race to record 23:29. Malcolm Ball would have taken the over 70 gold medal had there been one but had to be content with beating 144 runners younger than himself whilst Geoff Hayward also made light work of his age. Two runners returning from injury, Ian Jarvis and Jeremy Bolam, both got round without ill effect and Emma Dennis, Nikki Kavanagh, Andi Osborne, Shelley Burton and Virginia Borrman completed a strong showing.