Great Yarmouth Road RunnersTHOSE watching the current European Football Championships will have noticed that among all the data being bandied about is information about the amount of ground in kilometres covered by each individual player.

Great Yarmouth Road Runners

THOSE watching the current European Football Championships will have noticed that among all the data being bandied about is information about the amount of ground in kilometres covered by each individual player.

So Klose of Germany, for instance, had run 9.71 kilometres when he was substituted in the last minute of last Sunday's game against Poland. Round this off to 10 kilometres and you have 25 laps of the Wellesley track or what is probably the most favoured distance for road racers at this time. Certainly this is true if a number of local races are anything to go by, where smallish groups of Great Yarmouth Road Runners were competing.

The first was the Broome 10k on Wednesday of last week, the first in a fortnightly series of races, attracting four of the Seasiders to an interesting out-and-back course.

Paul Evans, in fine form at the moment, was first clubman home and third in his age group. He was closely followed by Stephen Etherington, fourth in his age group and in a personal best time. Angela Pacey and Denise Etherington represented the ladies and continued their learning curve over a variety of distances.

Etherington was in action again two days later at Norwich, for the Guy Fawkes 10k, where he was joined by Paul Brookshaw, the latter recording a time pretty close to that of Evans at Broome - making for some exciting future battles between the two.

For a club with over 50 running members, these were quite disappointing turnouts - but there are a number of mitigating factors, including injuries and illnesses, preparation for marathons in August in Slovenia and Ireland, and participation in events of a slightly unusual nature.

Chris Harbord, for instance, was at Barton-le-Clay near Luton for a summer cross-country while Mark Peach was at Fritton Lake for the annual triathlon there, an event in which he acquitted himself well.

A much larger contingent of Road Runners is expected at Wymondham on Sunday for the big ten mile race, based at the iconic Hethel Engineering headquarters next to the Lotus test track.

Great Yarmouth Road Runners finishing positions and times

Results Broome 10k: 20 Paul Evans 41 minutes 20 seconds, 23 Stephen Etherington 42:05 pb, 53 Angela Pacey 55:34, 67 Denise Etherington 68:08.

Guy Fawkes 10k Norwich: 41 Paul Brookshaw 41:39 seconds pb, 47 Stephen Etherington 42:13.

Barton 10k: Chris Harbord 89:00.

Fritton Lake Triathlon: Mark Peach 70:00.