Sean Baldock made a surprise appearance on day two of the Sussex Championships at Crawley and won the 400m.

He missed Saturday's 200m, it was wrongly assumed he was injured, but was on top form for the one-lap race.

Baldock blazed away from the start and overtook defending champion and record-holder Alastair Gordon on the first bend.

Baldock flashed across the line in 46.50sec, removing nearly one second from Gordon's year-old record.

It is the fourth year in a row the 400m record has been broken but Baldock's time will take some beating.

Baldock said: "I decided to just contest the 400m this year. Training is going well and over the next few weeks I am aiming to get into some top class races.

"I'm planning to be part of the Great Britain team for the World Championships at Paris in August. My next major event will probably be the European Club Championships in Belgrade at the end of the month."

Crawley's Kevin Holland, who won the 5,000m on Saturday after running a sub two-minute 800m, is a glutton for punishment.

On Sunday, he lined up for the 3,000m steeplechase but could not contain Chichester's Jamie Baker, who in recent months has established himself as one of the top Sussex middle distance runners.

Baker won the title 12 months ago but it was not until after halfway that he shook off Holland to set a personal best time of 9min.37.11sec, the fastest winning time in this event for a decade.

Holland was rewarded with a personal best 9min.43.39sec and collected the silver medal.

After her fine 1,500m victory on day one, Worthing's Rachael Ogden produced another brilliant run in the 800m to complete the double.

Her winning time of 2min. 08.18sec lifts her to eighth on the Sussex all-time list and is the fastest 800m by a Sussex runner since 1989.

She said: "I had a good weekend. I was not expecting to run quite as fast at this time in the season but am really pleased.

"I'm looking forward to racing in the Inter-Counties Championships at the end of the month when I hope to run faster.

"I've not decided which of the two distance I will race at the Inter-Counties."

Horsham Blue Star's Clare Harman was prevented from repeating her hat-trick of victories last year when the ever-reliable Crawley sprinter Elaine Wells squeezed home by inches in the 200m (25.59sec).

Under-20 throwers Simon Cooke (Chichester), in the discus, and Donna Southgate (Worthing), in the hammer, both set records.

Southgate not only bettered the championships best but broke the Sussex record.

She finished with 37.20m, some four metres further than the previous record and just over a metre shy of the county senior record.

Cooke beat the record of former international Richard Slaney when he lofted the discus out to 49.31m.

This was the second part of Cooke's double as earlier he won the shot (13.72m).