Hugh Foord, now in his seventies and still racing in road events, may well have a claim as the most senior Sussex athlete although by no means is he the oldest.

Eighteen months ago Hugh competed in the Sussex track championships, 50 years after his first appearance.

Not quite matching Hugh's longevity, but then he is ten years his junior, is Peter Standen who is now a member of the Hastings Athletic Club but in the 50s and 60s he was a team mate of Hugh at Brighton and Hove.

Peter has won 38 Sussex championship medals spread over 45 years, 18 of these are individual golds and next weekend he will be aiming to win another individual title 45 years after his Sussex championship win.

A former Bexhill Grammar School boy, Peter won the Sussex Youths (now under-15s) three mile cross country crown over a snow covered Bexhill Down course from Bob Morris from Chichester High School. Both recorded the same time but Peter was adjudged the winner in a race that, to this day, is the closest ever battle for that title.

Thus began an illustrious career that seemed dogged by misfortune and injury and never really reached those heights that it could have done.

Prior to Peter's victory at Bexhill he had emerged as a fine track athlete and had already won the Sussex and All England Schools under-15 half-mile title but it was not long before he faced the first of his setbacks.

In 1957, when he was expected to add another English Schools title to his name, he suffered chicken pox and although he went to the championships at Southampton he was well below his best and eliminated in his heat although his time proved to be faster than that of the eventual winner.

The Southampton championships were on a grass track and in persistent rain for two days. Ever since then there has been covered accommodation for the competitors.

Putting the 1957 setback out of his mind, Peter returned to action in 1958 and did the double in the Sussex under-17 championships, winning both half and one mile title on the same day. He then added the Sussex schools' half-mile title and dominated the English Schools final at Houghton-le-Spring in Durham, setting a new championship record time of 1min. 56.7sec. a time that only one Sussex under-17, Simon Eyre, has bettered in the past eight years.

Unlike now, when many youngsters carry on their schooling at Sixth Form Colleges, it was not unusual for even 16-year-old grammar school students to enter the world of work and Peter started what was to be 42 years at the Royal Observatory at Herstmonceux.

"I continued running," said Peter "and won several more Sussex track titles in the junior age groups and also won the Civil Service half-mile title at a time when the Civil Service Championships were a major athletic event.

"Running was my main preoccupation as it was the only thing I was any good at. I did the other sports at school but I really wasn't good at them so athletics became a very large part of my life.

"In those days coaching was not as available as it is today and although I continued to win Sussex Championships for a couple of years I was not really making any improvement.

"From 1960 I seemed to be getting slower and slower because I did not really know how to train and I spent a couple of years going through the motions.

"After reading several books and magazines I started training more sensibly and in 1964 I started well in January when I finished second to Horsham's Maurice Baker in the Sussex Senior Cross country Championships in thick mist at Denne Park in Horsham.

"Later in the summer I clocked my fastest ever mile of 4min. 7.6sec., at the time the second fastest one mile run by a Sussex athlete, but I was injured and missed the County Championships because of Achilles problems."

Peter's injury ruled him out of competition for the most important years of his career and was only solved when he had operations on the spurs in his feet. Even when confined to a wheelchair after his operations he would keep his upper body strong by doing push ups in the wheelchair.

In the early Seventies Peter added another couple of Sussex titles to his name and looked like returning to his best form, but a posting to Australia for six years and another two years on the Canaries meant by time he was back in England and able to train and race properly he had reached the veteran age group.

This did not prevent him collecting another four county titles in the Veteran Cross Country Championships and last September he won the county over-60 3km track title, 40 years after his first county victory. Even Hugh Foord's remarkable career cannot boast 45 years of county titles.

He added: "While I was in Australia I did a little jogging and some fun runs and it was there I started coaching and actually got my qualifications in Australia. On my return I joined Hastings which had not existed when I started athletics and started coaching seriously and now I have several of the leading Hastings middle distance runners under my wing.

"Athletics has contributed so much to my life and I hope it will continue for as long as I can train and run but also through my involvement in coaching."

A few Sussex athletes made the trip to Margate last Sunday for the latest round of the Reebok Cross Country Challenge and Patrick Davoren, from the Phoenix Club, made an impressive debut into cross country running this season by finishing 27th in a high class senior 9.5km in a time of 29min 54sec which would suggest that the course was rather under distance.

In the senior women's 5.5km race, Phoenix's Emma Satterley finished 37th.