Steyning's women walkers stole the limelight in the club's open 15km road race.

Led by the diminutive Joanne Hesketh, who was second to cross the line, they dominated a select field which included a number of Olympic and international walkers.

In bitterly cold conditions, they trounced the men in the team event, although to be fair this was a strong Steyning women's team while only race winner Gareth Brown would normally make the men's team.

It is only in recent years the women have raced further than 10km, but it made little difference on this occasion.

Hesketh was well inside the 80-minute mark in a time of 78min. 46sec., while Sophie Hales made a remarkable debut over the distance to take third place in 80min. 23sec.

Brown almost missed the start, arriving just as the walkers were lining up in the High Street, and had former Olympic walker Ian Richards, from Coventry, breathing down his neck as they left town and headed towards Partridge Green.

Richards, who has moved to Worthing, only recently started training again and at 54 will take time to get racing fit. Twenty years ago he wore the Great Britain vest in the Moscow Olympics.

After using the early stages of the race to warm up, Brown went well clear to win by nearly eight minutes in 70min. 56sec., a fast time in the conditions for a distance of nearly ten miles.

Walking at a pace of virtually one mile every seven minutes is certainly not hanging about.

Ilford's Dave Yates managed to squeeze in front of Sarah Sowerby, formerly Brown, who like Richards was making her return to racing, to finish in fourth place. With a total of ten points, the Steyning women easily beat the men's 20 points.

Another athlete making a welcome return to racing was Brighton's Gary Witton, who finished seventh. He will show plenty of improvement if he can manage to fit in a reasonable training pattern with his duties as a policeman.

Tim Watt, who missed the Steyning event because of a heavy cold, had a fine walk to take third place in the prestigious Met Police Open 10km race at Imber Court.

He finished behind international Mark Easton (Surrey) and Andrew Gouldie (Belgrave), cracking the 50-minute barrier with a time of 49min. 31sec., to lead Steyning to victory.

Nick Ball, who is still in the under-15 age group, was not far behind in fourth place in 50min. 44sec., while Nick's father, Jimmy, was then less than a minute back in 51min. 46sec.

Sophie Hales was the first woman to cross the line in eighth place overall in 53min. 12sec.