Race organisers yesterday hailed Southwold's first 10k race a success and said they hope to stage the event again next year.

Race organisers yesterday hailed Southwold's first 10k race a success and said they hope to stage the event again next year.

Despite the blustery conditions the weather stayed mainly dry as about 400 runners completed the scenic route around the seaside town.

The inaugural Adnams Southwold 10k was organised by the brewers in a bid to raise �10,000 for the Prince's Trust.

There was a huge amount of interest in the event and the 300 places originally on offer filled up within four weeks.

Race organisers later decided to allow an extra 100 runners to take part because of the “phenomenal” interest in the event.

Emma Hibbert, head of corporate affairs for Adnams, said she was delighted with the turnout at yesterday's race.

“It has been brilliant,” she said. “The weather held off until the end and we had approximately 400 runners taking part.

“We hope to do it again next year. It seems to have been a really great event and I think people have enjoyed themselves.

“Given the terrible weather throughout the rest of the country I think we have been very lucky that the sun was shining in Southwold.

“There was a great atmosphere and it was really nice to see lots of people from running clubs taking part and also people who were running for the first time.”

The course began at the Harbour Inn and finished near the Red Lion pub where goodie bags were handed to all adult runners containing a free bottle of Adnams beer.

Ms Hibbert said that runners came from as far afield as Sheffield, Leicester, London and Brighton to take part.

Trophies for the winners were made by the Adnams engineering team and were an Adnams beer pub handpull.

Jonathan Adnams, executive chairman of Adnams, started the race and presented the prizes.

The winner was Paul Higham who posted a time of 36 minutes 22 seconds, followed by Richard Hayes in second place and Adam Hardy in third place. The first woman over the line was Catherine Lee, who recorded a time of 42 minutes 19 seconds, followed by Rachel Bull and Michelle Gordon.

The fastest unattached runner from the Southwold, Wangford and Reydon area was Gary Andrews who crossed the line in 42 minutes 28 seconds. The winner of the under 18 years category was John Ling who completed the course in 40 minutes 2 seconds and the winner of the over 50s category was Dale Hurren who posted a time of 41 minutes 36 seconds.

BLOB: For full race report see EADT Sport later this week.