Jamie Baker, from Chichester, made it three wins in ten days with victory in the Sussex Cross Country League event at Lancing.

The cold wind that swept across Lancing Manor was no problem for Baker who is enjoying a purple patch at the moment.

He recently triumphed in the Chichester Corporate Classic 5km road race and won the Petersfield half-marathon by nearly four minutes.

Brighton and Hove's Matt Bristow and Richard Airey led the field at the start but Baker, closely followed by Ben Warren from Hailsham, took control of the race and pulled clear of their pursuers.

Baker never looked like being deprived of the top spot, but that should not detract from the remarkable performance of Warren who is still in the under-20 age group.

At one stage, Baker had a lead of more than 100 metres but towards the finish Warren was beginning to peg him back.

Baker cruised to the line in 28min.26sec, 80 metres clear of Warren who was a full minute ahead of Bristow.

Baker said: "I feel I am running as well as I have ever done. I've have three wins in ten days so I must be doing something right.

"I am starting to add a little more speed work to my training as the track season is only a few weeks away and I am looking to race mainly over 800m and 1,500m for most of the season.

"I will be competing in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the County Championships. I'm feeling pretty strong."

Crawley's Andy McDermott had his best cross country run to date to take fourth place and early on he looked like leading his club to victory in the team event when there were six Crawley runners in the top 12.

But Brighton and Hove came through to claim victory with 56 points, eight ahead of Crawley, with Chichester filling third spot.

Hoyte is an easy winner In the women's race, there was a repeat of the battle for the county title back in January between Arena 80's Caroline Hoyte and Brighton and Hove's Julia Downes, both of whom had run well in the Uk Athletics 4km Cross-country Championship in Stanmer Park last week.

If Hoyte can avoid her frequent colds and viruses she could again challenge for international honours after easing clear of Downes on the first of the three laps to win by more than a minute in 19min.41sec.

Downes, in turn, was two minutes clear of Crawley's Sam Webb in third. She was also the first under-20 runner to finish.

The team race could not have been closer with both Crawley and Brighton and Hove scoring 26 points. Crawley were placed first as their fourth scoring runner, Kirsty Fenn, finished tenth, just one place ahead of Brighton's Rachael Vaughan.