ORGANISERS smashed their target of 200 runners in the 200th running of the Evesham parkrun.

Crowds of people converged on the meadow near Hampton Ferry with Pershore Plum Plodders and Evesham Vale Running Club among the groups represented out of the 366 involved.

Others had travelled from as far away as Great Yarmouth, Winchester and High Wycombe to join in the celebrations.

Town mayor Mark Goodge set the runners on their way and hopes to take part later in the year himself.

The five-kilometre course, which featured plenty of mud and strong winds, was completed by more than double the number of people for a typical week and 130 more than the previous largest turnout.

Among the runners were Colin Tether and Robert Hale who were part of the original team that set up the event in 2015.

“When we started this we would have been happy to have had 30 people turn up so we would never have expected it to become so popular,” said Tether.

Run director Marcus Mumford said: “It was fantastic to see so many runners enjoying the sunshine and our beautiful riverside course.

"111 of them hadn't visited our event before and there were also 21 people doing their first ever parkrun.

"We hope all of them will come back next week!”

Evesham parkrun takes place every Saturday at 9am and is free for everyone.

For more details, visit parkrun.org.uk/evesham.