THE first urban race event in Worcestershire has proved a big hit with athletes who love to challenge body and mind.

About 450 took part in the first ever Great Malvern Race on Saturday as athletes tried a new type of orienteering which swaps the hills and the forests of the countryside for the challenges of road, street, lane, alley and park.

The event, which began and finished at Priory Park, attracted people of all ages, the youngest just six and the oldest 80.

Athletes had a choice of seven different courses from 7.3km to a 1km course for under-12s confined to the park itself.

There was at least one collision in the park when a multi-tasking male orienteer was too busy reading his map to notice a woman walking in the opposite direction and crashed headlong into her.

Organiser Lynden Hartmann of Harlequins Orienteering Club said: “It gets quite tricky, map-reading on the run. Athletes have to use their common sense. It’s the ultimate thought sport. It’s about making decisions on the run and sometimes the fastest runners make the biggest mistakes. The harder you run the more your brain gets a bit cooked and the harder it is to think.”

The race drew runners from across the UK and abroad, including Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania.