The Hastings Half-Marathon, which is less than a month away, is one of the highest rated road races in the country according to rankings in a top British road runners magazine.

The magazine produces the rankings each year based on organisation, course, atmosphere and size, value for money and quality of field.

Marks out of 20 are allocated for each category and Hastings amassed 84 to lift them to third place overall - two places up on last year. The London Marathon was again No. 1.

Hastings has been particularly strong on prize money, indeed the Kenyan Sammy Otieno walked off with £10,000 two years ago when he broke 62 minutes for the distance and was the first of six Kenyans to fill the first six places.

The race usually attracts quality entries particularly Kenyans, who tend to race where the money is and some of these had been virtually unknown before getting among the prizes at Hastings.

There could be big prize money this year for the first woman to better 71 minutes for the course.

Eric Hardwick, the race organiser said: "We have always believed that we put on a good event and it is great to get this sort of recognition.

"This has done wonders for the entries which are already 16 per cent up on this stage last year and if this continues we may well have to bring our closing date forward as we will have reached our limit of 3,000 early."