Darrell Stone made a last-minute decision to race in the annual Easter walk at Steyning and eased to his 12th victory in his slowest time.

He was 12 minutes outside his course record in 1hr.58min. 36sec as a chilly head win took its toll.

Last year's winner, Gareth Brown, was second, eight minutes adrift but one minute faster than last year when he led virtually from start to finish.

Sally Warren did not defend her women's title and it was veteran Gill Trower who was the first woman across the finishing line in 2hrs.42min. 20sec, four minutes down on her silver medal placing 12 months earlier.

The outstanding walk came from Sophie Hales in the women's 3km race.

Although officially in the under-20 age group, Hales raced with the seniors and showed them a clean pair of heels as she completed three laps of the tough town centre course in 14min.50sec, a course record for her age group.

It was only ten seconds outside the ten-year-old senior women's record time.

Second across the line was Jo Hesketh, who took the senior title in 15min. 27sec.

Good conditions produced fine performances at the Tom Lintern Early Season track meeting at Crawley.

Local girl Elaine Wells made a cracking start with a double win in the 200m (26.6sec) and 400m (58.3sec).

Clubmate Charlotte Best, who has made two international appearances over the country during the winter, made a winning debut in the under-20 age group in the 1,500m (4min.49.6sec), a much faster time than the winning senior effort.

Andrew Bennett, from Bognor, made his official debut in the senior age group and cruised to an easy victory in 49.5sec.

Eastbourne's Tim Connor and Crawley's Matt Patten were leading under-17 performers in Sussex last season and now they are brushing aside older opposition in the under-20 age group.

Connor won the 100m (11.4sec) and long jump (6.51m), not much below his best effort of last season, while Patten ran his fastest ever 400m to win in 52.0sec.