Steyning's Darrell Stone, who missed out on an England Commonwealth Games place, showed a clean pair of heels to Surrey's Mark Easton.

He beat Easton, who did make the trip the Manchester, in the Cambridge Harriers League event at Bexley.

Stone has found it difficult to balance his race walking training with a job which frequently takes him away from home.

But despite his lack of training Stone was well able to cope with the flat, fast course and over the first of the four laps he established a comfortable lead which he stretched all the way to the finish.

Clocking a nippy 21min. 49sec. for the 5km course, he finished virtually a minute ahead of his second placed Surrey rival.

In the women's 5km race, clubmate Jo Hesketh finished second behind international Estle Vijoen from Hercules Wimbledon in 26min. 35sec.

The Crawley AC men's team were the only Sussex squad to compete in the AAA of England 6x5.5km road relay championship at Sutton Park near Birmingham.

Crawley, who had finished 27th in the South of England Championships last month, did not gain automatic qualification for this national event. They came in as a reserve team and more than justified their invitation despite the absence of their leading performers.

Tom Hopkins, now back in action at Loughborough University, took the tough opening leg and had a steady run to finish 54th in 19min. 04sec. which suggests he is on his way to reproducing his form of two years ago.

Paul Rodgers ran a remarkable second leg to lift the team 17 places to 37th in 18min. 25sec. and this was the highest Crawley managed.

Veteran Bob Creed slipped three places in 19min. 42sec, while county veterans 3,000 metre champion Dave Rayner fell to 46th on lap four in 20min. 01sec.

Junior Joel Clewett held this placing on the penultimate leg in 20min. 04sec while Tim Kimber dropped a further three places on the final leg in 20min. 47sec to give Crawley 49th out of 80 teams.

Another Crawley athlete on the comeback trail is 22- year-old Sharon Whitby, a former All England Schools 800 metre medallist.

Injuries kept Whitby away from competition for nearly two years but she did make a tentative return to track racing last season.

In the Haywards Heath Open cross-country races at Ardingly College she showed club mate Samantha Webb a clear pair of heels to win the senior 5km race by more than half a minute in 24min. 27sec.

There was a much closer battle in the men's 7.1km race where Darryl Hards (Phoenix) beat Tom Burke by one second in 23.48.