GREAT Yarmouth Road Runners tackled an unusual course around a farm near Norwich.

The venue is used as a horse riding course which gives the race organisers the ideal obstacles for the runners to climb over or in some cases roll under. The 10k and 5k distances include a run through a river twice, and army rat runs nets to crawl under.

Nine Seasiders took part. Andrew Manning, using all of his cross-county experience, came home first while close behind was Steve Dady.

Next back was Mark Peach, who had to stop running for his own best time to help Andy Peck over a couple of obstacles. Mark and Andy’s times were 54:15 and 54:17 respectively. Andrew Baker was next to complete the task in a great time of 56 minutes.

Karen Manning, being a Hellrunner veteran, took to the task with consummate ease and finished the race in 1-00:20.

Paul Spandler won the challenge against this brother Peter in finishing in 1-04:00 with Peter finishing a couple of minutes later.

Taking part in the 5k version of the same race, with the same amount of obstacles to overcome, was Sylvia Dady. She completed the distance but next year she will be first in line to enter the 10k. All times are approximate due to the nature of the event.

In the parkrun results this week Matthew Sutton won in a time of 19:18 with Joel Payne obtaining another pb of 21:23, finishing eighth.

Steve Stringer and Lorrain Dawson had their own personal battles with Steve finishing in 24:27 (24th) and Lorrain 24:32 (25th). Peter Spandler completed the course in 28:04 (46th) while Linda Carter obtained another pb with 28:20 (48th).

Paul Spandler ran the new Norwich parkrun, also achieving a pb.

Great Yarmouth and District Athletic Club: On Saturday members competed in the Norfolk Sports Hall Athletics League where specially designed equipment is used for athletic type events.

Under-15 Mark Phillipson, competing in the multi-event competition where each athlete does six events, put in some outstanding performances to win comfortably.

The under-13 girls competing in the league competition pushed the City of Norwich all the way.

Amy Dowsett, Erin Urwin, Emily Anderson, Ella Wakely, Phoebe Baker, Bridget Clarke and Kate Canham did well to take second place out of the seven teams competing.

The under-11 girls’ team of Catherine Long, Molly Bean and Daisy Spurway put in some good performances but the lack of numbers let them down and they had to be content with fifth place.

The under-11 boys team of Kai Beadle and Jake Bailey did well to finish fourth.

With two more fixtures to go a better turn-out in the younger age groups will make all the difference.