THE popular Evesham Town 10k race attracted 472 runners in near-perfect conditions.

A pack of three quickly formed at the front and accelerated away from the rest of the field down a closed Vine Street and on to Abbey Road.

Tom Baines, of Tipton Harriers, won in 31 minutes 58 seconds to smash the record time by more than a minute.

Junior runner Jack Picket, of Wolverhampton and Bilston, improved on last year’s third place to take second.

The 2018 winner David Bell, of Cirencester AC, had to settle for third despite being 36 seconds quicker than last year.

The women’s race was dominated by Shona Crombie-Hicks, of Tewkesbury Running Club, who claimed her sixth successive win with just eight men faster than her.

Second was Kate Le Chevalier, of Pershore Plum Plodders, who continued to enjoy a great season with an improvement of over three minutes from last year.

Third place went to Petra Vymetalova with all the prizes presented by town mayor Mark Goodge.

The annual event, now in its 12th year, was sponsored by Purr Home Services, raised money for Wallace House Community Centre and organised by volunteers from Evesham Vale Running Club.

Race director Sam Townsend said: “We’ve worked hard to improve the race for this year with the hope of an even more enjoyable experience for the runners, a faster course and reducing the environmental impact.

"We had hundreds of happy runners, a new record winning time and avoided using any plastic bottles so we couldn’t be happier.”

A group of runners who had progressed through the club’s 5k to 10k course with many weeks of training completed the race.

All the competitors were cheered on by a good turnout of spectators.

The children’s fun run involved three races for those aged up to 16 and 108 took part with each receiving a medal.