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 Todd Leckie from Hailsham, who failed to complete the course in the County Championships at the beginning of the year, was back on top form at the Chichester Priory 10km road race on Sunday.
Snow prevented some athletes getting to the course but this did not prevent Ben Whitby from Windsor and Chris Poynder from Winchester making the journey and putting up a tremendous show with the result in doubt until the final stretch.
Whitby managed to take the title in 29:37, just two seconds clear of the Winchester runner.
There was an even closer battle for Sussex honours as Leckie managed to reach the finishing line in sixth place just one second and one place ahead of County Cross-country champion Jon Pepper ....
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 The pressure on, mainly school cross-country runner in the early weeks of this year meant that Sussex Schools were only able to send skeleton teams to the South East Inter-counties match at Basildon on Saturday.
The first few weeks of this year’s fixtures has seen eight important races for the younger athletes in the first eight weeks.
This has meant that many, particularly those who had finished in the top five at the Sussex Schools championships at Lancing and qualified for a place in the England Schools Championships, taking a weekend off racing.
Indeed only six of the thirty pre selected athletes made the journey to Basildon.
There was just one top ten individual placing for Sussex and that was gained by junior boy’s ....
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Tomorrow will see the South East Inter-county Schools match at Basildon, which will give some athletes a second chance to catch the selector’s eyes for the three remaining places in the team for next month’s English Schools Championships.
Win for Grice at Lee Valley
Charlie Grice, who it is believed will not be bidding for a place in the Sussex Schools team as he is expected to concentrate on indoor racing, chalked up an impressive win at the London Games at Lee Valley last weekend.
Running in the 800 metres Phoenix’s Grice took complete control of his the “A” race winning in 1:51.33 from Ashford’s Tim Burt.
Brighton & Hove’s Jordan Auburn was also in good form in his first year in the U20 ....
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 A brilliantly timed sprint down the final hill to the finish by Ben Tickner presented Sussex with a gold medal in the South of England Cross-country championships in Stanmer Park but we had to wait for the final of the day’s ten events.
Tickner, leg problems when finishing second in the Sussex Senior championships at the beginning of January for the Phoenix Club but on Saturday he was in fine fettle and sporting the colours of his first claim club Wells A.C.
Tickner, along with Sussex champion Jon Pepper, Enfield & Haringey, who also ran for Phoenix in the County event were never far away from the leader, Phil Wicks (Belgrave) over this nine mile race.
Wicks was seeking his third title and ....
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 Probably the most important athletics event to be held in Sussex since the, English Schools Cross-country championships in 2000 will be held in Stanmer Park on Saturday when the “Saucony” South of England Cross-country championships are held.
It was back in 1986 that these championships were last held in Sussex and then they were held over a snow covered course in Stanmer but then they only involved the men’s championships.
This year the ten races that start at 11.00, includes the Women’s championships as well.
While several of the star British women runners, from Aldershot, who did so well at the European Cross-country championships before Christmas are electing to miss the event the star performer of the afternoon is likely to be Taunton’s ....
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 The South of England Men’s Cross-country championship will be on home soil in Stanmer Park on Saturday, the sixth time the championships have been held in Sussex.
Normally these championships are held at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath but this year the National championships are being held over that course so the “Southern” moves out of the City to another City.
These championships first appeared on Sussex spoil back in the 1930s when it was held at the Brighton race course while in 1950 Harry Hicks from Hampstead won; over what I am assured was a completely unsuitable and muddy course at Eastbourne.
I have not been able to access the results from the pre WWII event but in 1950 Peter West from Worthing ....
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 Sussex athletes scooped up a load of medals in the South of England Indoor championships at Lee Valley at the weekend including five “Golds”.
The pole vaulters again did the county proud with Crawley’s Stephanie Smith winning the senior title clearing 3.70m and Horsham’s Jade Brewster setting a new personal best of 3.40m to win the U17 crown with Brighton & Hove’s Holly Turner taking the silver medal with 3.10m.
Jack Valeri (Brighton & Hove) took the U20 triple title with a leap of 14.09m while Crawley’s Robyn Petitt took the U17 women’s high jump event clearing 1.70.
The only track medal fell to Charlie Grice (Phoenix) who romped away with the U20 1,500m crown finishing a full second clear in 3:54.22, a ....
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 It was a case of as you were as far as the girls were concerned at the “Brooks” Sussex Schools and Sussex Masters Cross-country championships at Lancing Man
In almost perfect conditions, traditionalists may have liked to see a little more mud; the racing went very much as expected without any major upsets.
In the Girls races all three of last year’s champions retained their title, something I cannot recall happening before, and in the senior race hot favourite Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds (Haywards Heath College) never looked like losing the crown she had won twelve months back as she moved well clear of her rivals from the start in winning comfortably in 17:48 although Nicole Taylor (Crowborough Beacon) was closing the gap towards ....
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 The “Old and the New” take centre stage this weekend when the Sussex Schools Cross-country championships and the Sussex County Masters Championships are being held at Lancing Manor on a full day of Cross-country racing.
The first race will start at 10.30 when the Senior Boys and Senior girls line up to do battle and in both events there is a strong favourite for the individual title but a promise of a fine battle for the minor placings.
First winner of the afternoon should be Haywards Heath College’s Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds, the reigning champion, while Crowborough’s Nicole Taylor, runner up in the Intermediate age group last year, is likely to have a good battle with BHASVIC’s Emma Dixon who beat Taylor for the ....
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There were silver medals for East Grinstead’s Ryan Spivey and Chichester’s Isobel Brown in the South of England’s Indoor championships at Lee Valley at the weekend.
Competing in the Under 20 high jump Brown’s silver ware came in the Under 20 high jump with a fine clearance of 1.70m while in the Under 17 pentathlon championships the East Grinstead youngster took second place to Havering’s Alex Law totalling 3030 points to the winner’s 3217 points.
Crawley’s Andrew Kendall and Joel Buckett took bronze medals Kendall in the senior 400 metres in 49.80 after winning his heat in 49.78 while over the same distance Buckett clocked 54.0 in the Under 17 race.
Both Tom Gardner (East Grinstead) and Katie Garland from Hasting just missed ....
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