Norwich proved a happy hunting ground again for Tewodros Shiferaw and Gemma Steel as both runners repeated their feats of last year to win the men's and women's Lord Mayor's 5km titles.

Shiferaw (Birchfield Harriers) was quickly out of the blocks and carved out a lead of nearly 100m by the time he reached the 2k mark.

But Neilson Hall from Bedford & County AC had other ideas in the second half of the race and chased down Shiferaw to within 10m as they passed 4k.

However, Shiferaw recovered well in the final kilometre of the testing two-lap course to break the tape in 14mins 39secs, just 13 seconds shy of his winning time last year, and pocket the �500 winner's cheque.

Hall held on for a fine second place with 14mins 43secs and Chris Hartley (Thames Valley Harriers) took third on 15mins 03secs.

Meanwhile, GB international Steel (Charnwood AC) was less troubled but always had her own course record in sight as she moved smoothly away from the rest of the field from the gun. Last year Steel clocked 15mins 59secs to set a new course record and on Saturday evening she stopped the clock at exactly the same time, missing out on a �250 course record bonus by a single second.

In Steel's wake were Getenesh Tamerat (Belgrave Harriers) on 16mins 57secs and four-time City of Norwich Half Marathon champion Sarah Stradling from Colchester Harriers on 17mins 35secs.

Afterwards, City of Norwich AC's race director Granville Courtnell praised the efforts of all the competitors.

He said: 'We had a first class race at the front this evening with Neilson Hall giving the massive crowd a whole lot to cheer about as he tried to close down Tewedros. And in the ladies race Gemma Steel showed her class once again with a silky smooth performance to equal her own course record.'

A total of 84 runners completed the course which featured a ten-minute time limit at halfway. This year three runners failed to make the cut.