Sussex duo Peter Witcomb and Rob Shannon hit the gold medal trail for the second successive week.

The two Brighton and Hove run-ners followed their winning performances in the Sussex Veterans Cross-Country Championships by capturing South of England titles at Exmouth.

Witcomb, a stalwart of Sussex cross-country running for some-thing like 40 years, was making only his second appearance in the over-50 age group but at 53, four years into this age group, he was still much too good for the newcomers.

As he had done the previous weekend in the Sussex champion-ships at Hampden Park, he was raring to go and within the first half-mile he was up and away, and no one was able to challenge him.

Over a fast but testing course, Witcomb stretched his lead through-out the five and a half mile race, eventually finishing more than 100 yards clear of local runner Richard Selby in 33min. 14sec.

He said: "I was surprised when no one responded to my early pace, but as I was feeling good I kept chug-ging away and finished having a good runout."

Witcomb, however, was disap-pointed the Tuck twins, Grenville and Graham, from Aldershot, were missing from the line-up.

"Both were top-class internati-onals in their day and are supposed to be in good form at the moment. I would like to have had a crack at them because I feel I am running well at the moment."

Apart his gold medal, Witcomb also collected a bronze medal after leading Brighton and Hove into third place in the team event.

They finished with 60 points against winners Invicta's 45 and Poole, who had 53.

The remarkable Barry Blackwell had a brilliant run to fill eighth place in 34min. 57sec.

Blackwell's career was thought to be over a few years ago when he was run down while out training and was confined to a wheelchair for a time.

Paul Rockwood, in 20th place in 36min. 18sec., and Peter Bidmead, who placed 31st in 37min. 23sec., completed the Brighton and Hove scoring four.

Shannon's gold medal came in the over-45 age group.

This race was held in conjunction with the over-40 event, which meant Shannon was unable to dominate the race and had instead to battle with a quartet of younger men.

He placed fourth overall in 31min. 49sec. for the five-mile course, just nine seconds clear of his nearest over-45 rival, Martin Flower, from Portsmouth.

There were team medals in the over-40 event, and the Crawley club bagged silver behind Bournemouth, scoring 90 points to the winners' 50.

Crawley missed Dave Rayner, who had been runner-up to Shannon in the county championships.

Rob Creed, who is not eligible for the Sussex event, had a fine run, however, to finish in 11th place in 32min. 25sec., while Franklyn Young-Martos placed 17th in 33min. 28sec.

Brighton and Hove's Steve Lon-nen filled 24th spot in 34min. 20sec., which placed him fourth in the over-45 group, while clubmate Gary Woolgar was 26th in 34min. 22sec.

Jim Mortimer, who finished 28th in 34min. 40sec. and Gary Thayre, who was 34th in 35min. 07sec., completed the Crawley scoring team, but Brighton and Hove failed to finish a fourth runner.