Wet and muddy conditions await the 500 athletes who will be competing on Bexhill Down tomorrow in the Sussex Cross Country Championships.

The course is notoriously soft and the recent rain mean that some low stretches will be virtually under water.

The action starts with the under-13 girls at 11am and during the following four hours no less than ten titles will be decided.

The senior men's race at 1.15pm, where there are more than 150 entries, and the senior/under-20 women's race at 2.10pm, which boasts nearly 100 entries, will see the reigning champions Stephen Rees-Jones (Brighton & Hove) and Phoneix's Emma Satterly defending their titles. But it is by no means certain they will be successful.

Last year at Stanmer Park Rees-Jones won the crown ahead of Horsham's Andy Robinson after finishing in the top three in the three previous years.

They are expected to clash again but it is not certain whether 2001 winner Gavin Thompson (Crawley) will compete. He has entered, but may have returned to his American university after the Christmas break.

Crawley clubmate Joel Kidger, who finished third last year, made such giant strides on the track last season, culminating in a place in the England team at the Commonwealth Games, and he is likely to figure prominently in the chase for medals.

Former champions Patrick Davoren (Phoenix) and Brighton & Hove's Nigel Gates are also among the entries but Davoren, who also ran in the Commonwealth Games, is currently living in Spain and will not make a decision until the last minute and the same applies to Gates who is suffering from an Achilles problem.

In the women's race Satterly has not been training or racing as well as she would have liked lately and is not expected to retain her crown.

Hot favourite must be Arena 80's Caroline Hoyte who missed last year's race but should notch her fourth title.

In her absence the battle would appear to be between international triathletes, Sarah Coope (Eastbourne), the reigning Sussex veterans champion, and Jo Hinde from Hastings.

The under-20s title is wide open with any one of six potential winners, but Worthing's Richard Clayton looks the likely winner of the men's.