More than 2,000 people from across London turned out for East London Half Marathon and the Newham College 10K Run on the hottest day of the year so far on Sunday.

The races, organised by the Tessa Sanderson Foundation and Academy, left bright and early at 8.30am - half an hour later for the professional athletes in the East London Half Marathon - and they ran from the bandstand in West Ham Park to the Bow Flyover and back.

This was only the second Newham College 10K Run that gets amateur runners to raise money for The Learning Revolution Trust which awards grants of between £1,000 and £1,500 paid over a year to disadvantaged students to help them complete their studies.

Former Newham College English student Jamal Mahamad, 30, from Plaistow, won the overall men’s race in just under 34 minutes and he’s now training for the London Marathon.

Jamal, who now works for the Royal Mail, said: “I always do athletics. It was a good day.

“There were lots of peple and there was sunshine. I did the race for fun but it’s also for a good cause.”

Andrei, 17 from East Ham, won the Boys Under 18 category after only training for the last three months.

It was his first half marathon and he was persuaded to join in by his judo team at Newham College where he is due to start studying for a sports-based BTEC diploma in September to become a fitness coach.

He said: “It was a challenge towards the end but I just tried to keep the same speed going all the way.

“To get people into sport, I’d say ‘Think about how your body looks now and think about how much better it will look after’”.

Krystle Balogun, 26, from Chadwell Heath, won the overall women’s race in 43 minutes.

Krystle, who organises amateur runs from her workplace at Nike in Westfield Stratford City, said: “I didn’t expect to win. But you get to the stafe where you don’t think you can go on but the crowd pushed me to carry on.”

Former Olympic gold medallist Tessa Sanderson CBE was there to dish out the medals. She said: “The turnout was fantastic and the weather was great.

“I’ve had some fantastic responses from people saying they enjoyed the course and the cause.”

Click on the link on the side bar on the right to view the picture gallery.