Craig Ivemy returned from injury in dramatic fashion to win the second of this season's Sussex Cross Country League meetings at Lancing.

Ivemy (Hailsham) has been out of action with a stress fracture he picked up at the end of the track season.

He planned a low-key comeback but was unable to restrain himself. Before halfway he was pushing the pace along and moved well clear of his rivals to win by more than 100m.

Stephen Jules (Hastings), who had chased Chichester's Tom Bilham home at Goodwood in October, was the only runner at Lancing to repeat his placing, finishing comfortably ahead of recent Phoenix Road Race winner Jonathan Randle (Horsham).

In the under-15 age group, little more than 30 seconds separated the first eight runners over the 3.25km course.

Crawley's Aaron Denton, in his first year, took an early lead with Horsham's Richard Hoad and Daniel Stepney (Phoenix) in hot pursuit.

Hoad and Eastbourne's Matthew Southam took the initiative from Denton, who paid the price for going off too fast, and Hoad won in 16min.17sec, just two seconds clear of Southam. Scott Randall (Horsham) was one place back in third.

Lee Jules (Hastings) repeated his fourth placing from the first meeting at Goodwood, squeezing Daniel Stepney into fifth.

Scott Harris (Eastbourne), who made such a big impact as an 800m runner last season, had his first run over the country this season and finished sixth, just a few seconds ahead of Hastings' Simon Baker.

Matthew Barrie won the under-13 boys' event ahead of Luke Elsmore (Worthing) and Andrew Wilkinson (Lewes).

Crawley girls dominated the under-15 race, filling the first four places. Dannielle Christmas was comfortably clear of Hannah Brooks, Emily Goodall and Rachael Shram.

In the under-13 races, Jo Rowland (Crawley) was an impressive winner of the girls' race from a trio of Phoenix runners, Hannah Curtis, Savannah Echel-Thompson and Sundai Boulton.