SANDOWN Mercedes Benz of Basingstoke played host to two elite runners last week.

Kenyan paralympian Jonah Chesum and his trainer, Tom Payn, who is also an elite athlete, were at the showroom in Edison Road, Houndmills to meet over 50 runners who are to take part in this year’s Basingstoke Half Marathon.

Jonah was the first to cross the line in last year’s half marathon with an impressive time of one hour, six minutes and 15 seconds.

Guests heard Tom talk about Kenyan training methods and what can be learned from them.

There was a lively question and answer session which was followed by a talk by Justyn Moore from Basingstoke-based JM Human Performance who discussed techniques to improve training ahead of the half marathon set to take place on Sunday October 4.

Tom who is from athlete management company Run East, said: “It was great to bring Jonah back to Basingstoke to meet some of the local runners and it was a pleasure to share some of my experiences training Kenyan athletes with such an enthusiastic audience.”

Justyn added: “I really enjoyed the chance to give some keen runners tips for their training for the half marathon, it’s a challenging race and now is just the right time to plan so you can achieve your race goals, I’m really looking forward to running it myself.”

Destination Basingstoke, who organised the evening and who manage the half marathon, gave out special wristbands to runners who have entered the race every year since 2011 to thank them for their loyalty Anyone keen to enter the race in 2015 should visit basingstokehalfmarathon.com.