Lynda Spencer produced a thrilling sprint finish to win the Chichester Priory 10k by the narrowest of margins yesterday.

Spencer lead for the entire race but almost had victory snatched from her at the end by Karen Haslett.

The Chichester Runner just managed to hold off the challenge of Haslett but is was so close they were given the same time of 34min.39sec.

It was a huge personal best for Spencer and the first time she had won her home town event but she was unable to hang around to enjoy the triumph.

She said: "I was like Forrest Gump at the end. I had to go straight back to work so I just kept on running.

"I had no idea that there was someone coming up behind me until someone shouted from the crowd to say she was only 50m back. That was with one kilometre still to go and after that I could hear her footsteps getting closer but I never turned around to look because it would have been too scarey.

"Thankfully I had plenty left in my legs because the early pace had been fairly comfortable so I just managed to hold her off."

Andrew Robinson, of Horsham, finished five seconds behind men's winner Toby Lambert to claim silver in a personal best of 30min.27sec. Louis Jones, from Brighton, was fourth with James Baker, of Chichester Runners, fifth.

Arena 80 took the silver medal in the women's team event while Phoenix won bronze in both the men's and women's.