So easy for Robbie but just too hot for Samantha

Although James has lived in Sussex long enough to establish a county qualification and ran in and took the silver medal in the Sussex Half-Marathon last October, he has since decided that he wished to retain his Surrey qualification and returned his medal.

This decision meant that he was able to compete in the Surrey Cross-Country Championships in January and he donned the Surrey vest for the recent Inter-County Championships. In that event he finished 29th, ten places ahead of the first Sussex runner, so he is a great loss to Sussex county athletics.

However, his decision to revert to Surrey meant that Peacehaven's Tom Naylor changes his bronze medal from the Half-Marathon to a silver.

At Worthing there was no challenge to James despite this being his debut over the distance. By five miles he was clear and stormed through the ten-mile mark in 54 minutes 34 seconds, and at 15 miles he was still on course for a sub one hour 50 minutes clocking.

The strong wind along the coast road buffeted the runners and James slowed over the final stages, but he was still some three minutes clear of his nearest rival as he crossed the finishing line in 1:54.07.

Hailsham's Samantha Alvarez made a brave attempt to win the women's title, and she was still comfortably clear as they entered the fourth and final lap, but fellow veteran Julie Briggs, from the Arena 80 club, who was using the race as a warm-up for the London Marathon, stormed through and took the lead with a mile to run.

Alvarez battled on and should be pleased with her clocking of 2:13.53, just 26 seconds behind the winner, as she took the silver medal in both the open and county championship.

Sussex athletes dominated the women's race and Sally Musson from Crowborough had another fine run to finish fourth in 2:16.27, which earned her the over-50 county title.

Tomorrow the Sussex Road Relay Championships take place at Christ's Hospital School, near Horsham. The first race starts at 11am.

Following their excellent cross-country season the Lewes youngsters will be looking for team medals in the under-15 boys's race, but the under-17 women will have to do battle as seniors.

At the top end of the age scale the over-60 men's team will be eager to regain the title they lost to Hastings last year.