Pat Davoren proved that he has fully recovered from the nasty tumble he took early in the month in an impressive win in the Boxing Day five-mile road race in Brighton's Preston Park.

In near perfect conditions, the Phoenix runner was accompanied by training companion Louis Jones from Crawley for the first half of the race.

Jones was treating the race as a training session and after two of the four laps he left the rest of the race to the reigning South of England steeplechase champion who kept the pace rattling along to win by nearly one minute in 28min. 11sec, some 20 seconds quicker than last year's winning time.

It was in the 'Portsmouth 5' at the beginning of the month that Davoren, when running with the leaders, crashed into a bollard and could not finish. Although he is still scarred from that incident he has been back training for the past week and appears to have lost little of his fitness.

On this form he could well provide a major challenge in next weekend's Sussex Cross Country Championships in Stanmer Park, where Jones will also be a major threat.

After chasing his clubmate for most of the race, Darryl Hards was overtaken by Brighton and Hove's Tracy Harris on the final lap for second place in 29min.05sec, while Hards, who is still in the under-20 age group, had to settle for the bronze medal in 29min. 22sec.

Brighton and Hove's Julia Downes, who had flown back home from her Florida University base for Christmas, ran away with the women's title in 36min.15sec, nearly one minute clear of two of the big names of Sussex athletes.

Downes' former Sussex cross country teammate Suzanne Morley, who spends much of her time coaching now, and reigning Sussex champion Caroline Hoyte (Arena 80), jogged the final lap together, with the reigning champion easing in the last couple of strides to allow the former champion across the line first, although both were credited with 37min. 09sec.

Crawley walker Chris Cheeseman was prevented from recording ahat-trick of victories in the five-mile walk by some determined walking from Steyning's Darrell Stone.

For the past two years Cheeseman has used the race to test his fitness rather than a workout, but this year the Steyning walker was not going to let him have things all his own way.

By halfway, Cheeseman had open up a gap of ten metres but over the final lap it was Stone who came through strongly to chalk up an impressive victory in 38min.51sec.

Cheeseman clocked 39min.05sec for second place.

It was ten minutes before the Surrey Walking Club's Sean Lightman, who has been competing in these races for nearly 20 years, finished in third spot in 50min. 46sec.