Kiplimo Kimutai and Magdalene Syombua held off a strong British challenge to make it a Kenyan double at the Hastings Half Marathon yesterday.

The pair only arrived in Sussex from Africa on Friday after experiencing difficulties obtaining their visas and were running for the first time in this country.

But they adapted to the cold and wet conditions quickly with Kimutai winning an enthralling battle with world mountain running champion Martin Cox and Syombua beating former winner Birhan Dagne.

Kimutai struggled to stay with Cox on the hillier sections of the course but finally broke clear after nine miles and went on to win in 65min.24sec -the 13th victory by a Kenyan in the last 17 years. Cox held on for second in 66min.28sec with Mike Coleman third.

Syombua was more than four minutes outside her personal best as she won in 74min.19sec, more than a minute ahead of Dagne with Alice Braham third.

Hastings' Daniel Anderson produced a fine run to finish as the top Sussex runner in eighth place in a time of 73min.2sec while Julie Briggs, of Arena 80, took the women's county title in a time of 85min.14sec.

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