Michael Coleman ended a decade of Kenyan dominance with a thrilling victory in the Hastings Half Marathon.

Coleman produced a breathtaking finish to overtake Christopher Boit over the closing stages and become the first English champion since Mark Flint in 1996.

Boit set an electric pace to open up a lead of almost a minute at the nine mile mark but Coleman caught sight of the Kenyan along the seafront and began reeling him in.

He covered the last three miles in less than 14 minutes and Boit was unable to respond as Coleman won comfortably in a time of 66min.40sec to pocket the £3,000 prize money.

"I paced it really well," said Coleman.

"After five miles he was a minute up on me but he obviously went too hard on the hilly part of the course and paid for it later.

"I started catching him around the ten-mile mark but I didn't think he would die down that much. When I got on the seafront I was within range so I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could.

"It is great to be the first home winner for such a long time and proves that the Kenyans aren't unbeatable if you run the right race."

Boit started as hot favourite in the absence of reigning champion Fred Mogaka, who had been called up to compete in the Commonwealth Games for Kenya.

But he badly misjudged the demanding nature of the course on his Hastings debut and tired so much over the last two miles that he eventually finished over a minute behind Coleman in 67min.48sec.

Huw Lobb was third while Steve Rees-Jones battled through the pain barrier to take fourth place and the Sussex Championship in a time of 69min.14sec.

"I felt good up to five miles but then I felt an old groin injury flare up and had to struggle in from there," said Rees-Jones, who runs second claim for Brighton and Hove City.

"I've not competed much over the winter because I've started a new job and just haven't had the time. I wasn't sure how I would fare so I'm delighted to have won the title."

Daniel Anderson took the silver medal in the Sussex Championships with Hastings AC club-mate Henry Mountcastle collecting the bronze.

Biniam Ande's challenge to be the first home county winner never materialised but his fellow Eritrean asylum seeker and Hastings AC colleague Teclmariam Mereid was the fourth Sussex runner home.

Birhan Dagne won the women's race by just eight seconds from Alice Braham in a time of 75min.50sec but it was Gill Wheeler who was celebrating the most at the finish as she claimed her first Sussex title at any distance.

The Hailsham Harrier slashed two minutes off her personal best with a time of 82min.15sec to cross the line 21 seconds ahead of defending champion Julie Briggs.

Yvette Grice took the bronze medal.

"I'm thrilled to win the Sussex title," said Wheeler, 33. "I went past Julie after about eight miles but really found it tough in the closing stages and was just hanging on.

"I'm more used to shorter races and hadn't really trained for the distance so the second half of the race was very hard."

The event attracted a record entry of 4,500 with 3,410 runners successfully finishing the race.