Steyning underlined their status as the top British race walking club by winning the RWA women's 10km team title at Birmingham.

They also came second in the men's 35km championship.

Niobe Menendez is getting back to top form after suffering with heel problems. She conceded top placing to guest walker Olive Loughnane (Ireland) but her time of 49min.19sec was only nine seconds outside her best set in 1999.

Jo Hesketh had a great battle with clubmate Sally Warren and just edged eighth in a personal best 54min.04sec. Warren was ninth in 54min.39sec, to ensure Steyning the team victory.

Darrell Stone, having established a two-minute buffer at 30km, really suffered in the last 2km and was passed by Surrey rival Mark Easton in a dramatic finish. Stone desperately clung on to the silver medal in 2hr.58min.19sec.

Gareth Brown had a steady walk to finish fourth in 3hr.04min.15sec. But the last-minute withdrawal of Tim Watt through injury prevented the club from completing a team double and they had to settle for second behind Coventry.

Brighton and Hove's Nicky Gilding produced the outstanding performance when she broke the Sussex triple jump record with 11.57m, three centimetres further than her 1999 record.

The 29-year-oldalso chalked up two other personal bests at the Southern Women's League meeting at Portsmouth, winning the 100m in 12.7sec and moving to sixth on the Sussex all time list in the 100m hurdles (14.8sec).

Brighton and Hove did better than expected to finish fourth at the National Veterans Relay Championships behind Swansea, Woodford Green and Ronhill Cambaslang. After a steady opening leg from Steve Lonnen, (15min. 48sec) for the three-mile leg, they slumped to 23rd through Brian Ogilvie who replaced Nigel Gates.

Steady runs from Graham Hannaford, Tom Ulliott, newcomer Dave Blore and John Bristow enabled team captain Peter Witcomb and Rob Shannon to lift them to fourth.