Gavin Thompson won the senior men's title and Caroline Hoyte the women's crown in an incident-packed Sussex Cross Country Championships at Lancing Manor.

Thompson (Crawley) triumphed in the closest battle for a decade, while Hoyte (Arena 80) went off course before completing victory.

Thompson's club-mate Kevin Holland, a silver medal winner for the previous three years, made the early pace with Brighton and Hove's Stephen Rees-Jones.

Holland's plan was to go clear on the second of the three laps that each involved a steep climb to Lancing Clump and an even more difficult descent back to the Manor.

But Rees-Jones looked set for a convincing victory as they headed out for the final lap.

Thompson had seemingly tailed off in third place but he pegged back Holland on the final climb and his shorter stride length enabled him to catch Rees-Jones as they entered the finishing field.

Rees-Jones fought back but in a spirited sprint Thompson took the title by just two seconds in 48min.38sec over the 7.5mile course.

Holland was third and reigning champion Patrick Davoren (Phoenix) fourth.

Thompson said: "I had planned to make my effort on the final lap but was not really expecting the gap to open so much before I made my effort. I saw Kevin going through a bad patch and that spurred me and after passing Kevin, I knew I was closing on Stephen. I'm very pleased."

Nigel Gates (Brighton and Hove), one of the race favourites, was unwell and did not start. Phoenix won only their second ever victory in the team event with Brighton second and Crawley third.

Jo Hinde (Hastings) missed the women's event and Hoyte and Emma Satterley (Phoenix) went ahead.

The runners were expected to do a shorter lap followed by the long lap, but disaster struck on the first lap as a steward directed Hoyte and Satterley the wrong way before realising his mistake.

The leaders were nowhere to be seen as the field returned to complete their first lap and only the quick thinking of officials, who directed Hoyte and Satterley to do the shorter lap as their second lap, enabled justice to be done.

Hoyte won in 29min.48sec and Satterley was second in 30min.18sec.

Hoyte said: "I knew we had to do the long lap as our second lap, but it really did not matter which one we did first.

"When we were sent off course I thought he would send all the runners on the same route but everything turned out all right."

Hailsham's Katy Oxborrow was third a minute behind Satterley. Phoenix won the team event from Chichester with Lewes third.