Several Sussex athletes have chalked up long careers in athletics, and none more so than Brighton & Hove's Hugh Foord, who started racing in the 1940s, won his first International vest in 1955 and is still running in his nineties.
Horsham's John Luxford, who started racing in the 1950s and then became the Sussex team manager for over twenty years, stopped racing at the end of the last century and is no longer running.
No one, however, cannot match the remarkable James Baker from Chichester, who has not yet been running as long as Hugh or John but has been racing since 1992 and winning more races Nationally than anyone.
James joined Chichester Runners in November 1992, aged 15 and was thrown in at the deep end, with his first race for the club being the Sussex U17 XC champs at Bexhill. He placed well down the field in 20th place.
"I enjoyed the experience and carried on competing most weekends in both the Sussex and XC leagues as well as the Southern and National championships. My first National as a U17 was a disaster as I had sustained a nasty leg injury during football training a few days before. I hobbled round in 315 out of 338 finishes".
"My performances remained unspectacular, but I was competitive and had the reigning U17 inter counties XC champion Joe Foreshew in my training group. I wanted to be as good as him or faster!"
Chichester Runners joined the Southern Men's track and field league in 1994 and changed the club name to Chichester Runners & A.C, and James became the Club's sprinter for the early fixures clocking a modest 12.9s from a standing start.
"My first win was on the track at Milton Keynes in the dizzy heights of Division 8 of the Southern Men's League (SML). On 30th July 1994, I won the 400m in a fairly mediocre time of 56.3. It was a good feeling, though, to finally cross the line first," but it was not until 1995 that I achieved my aim of beating Joe Foreshew. I did the double at the West Sussex West schools champs. 1st place in the 800m and 1500m."
"I was then selected to run in the Sussex Schools champs at the Withdean Stadium. I spent weeks doing strenuous 500m efforts with the final 200m flat out to improve my kick finish. I was up against the Sussex U20 Champion Paul Stacey.
The race went like a dream. I followed Paul for 1300m focusing on his back. With 200m to go, I came alive and sprinted past him. It was my first Sussex Schools', and I won!
In 1996 I had hoped to defend my title at Crawley but was disappointed that I could only do one event. I was entered in the 800m instead. I managed to get blocked in on the first lap, and despite a great sprint finish where I caught up with the leader Matthew Murphy. I ended up coming 2nd. I got selected for the Sussex schools XC at Weymouth in 1996, placing 180th from last place in the pen.
I continued picking up wins in the SML and West Sussex Fun run league for the next six years before significantly improving in 2003. My 10k time came down to 31:18 & half marathon 68:11. I was then able to be competitive in bigger races. I finished 2nd in the South of England half marathon Championship at the New Forest half in 2003.
I also got my first win in the Sussex XC league at Lancing. So far, I have won 9 Sussex league fixtures and placed in the top 10 in all 57 races I've competed in since October 2000. I've won the league title 6 times. 2003/07/08/09/12/15.
My highest position in the Sussex senior XC champs was 3rd in 2007. I don't go too well on muddy XC courses, but when the conditions have suited me, I've placed 22nd in the Southern Champs (2013) and 79th in the National (2003), both Parliament Hill.
I've competed for the Sussex XC team at the inter counties 10 times and managed my best position of 50th at my last attempt at Birmingham in 2016. It was a hot day, dry course, over distance & more of a hill race. Suited me well. I haven't done it again as I felt it was as good as I could do. My most recent success at XC was winning the Sussex Masters event in 2022.
On the track I've won the Sussex 3000m steeplechase champs 5 times (01,02,03,08,10) Sussex 3000m champs 3 times (03,10,12) Sussex 5000m champs once in 2008 and the Sussex 10,000m 2 times (18,19). I represented Sussex in the Inter counties at Bedford in 2005, placing 10th in a PB 9:33.6.
Unfortunately, I had to quit the steeplechase in 2015 due to a lack of hamstring and hip flexibility over the barriers.
I don't know how many Sussex road racing titles I've won, but I have had success in local half marathons with 3 wins at Brighton and 5 at Barns Green and, most recently, a shock win at Hastings.
My eagerness to race regularly and churn out consistent results saw me win the Sussex 10k series in 2009 with a clean sweep of victories. The generous prize fund from Sussex Athletics earned me £400! I can't see that amount of money being paid out again.
I was selected to run for the South of England team at the Cardiff 10k in 2007 and placed 18th in 31:34. I also won the UK middle distance trail running Championship in 2013. My most recent success was a Marathon PB of 2:26:37, which has put me 13th on the all-time UK rankings for a V45.
I got my 1000th first place finish (including parkruns) at the Gosport 5k on 10th May 2022. My long-term goal is to clock up 100,000 miles of running. I'm currently closing in on 85,000, which I've kept track of through training diaries since July 1994.
Suffice to say, the opportunity to race often was not available fifty years ago when the likes of Hugh Foord, John Luxford or Worthing's Cliff Howard or Chris Lee were racing. Then apart from championships, the competition was restricted to Inter-club competitions and the odd open road race.
James has had the opportunity to race most weekends, sometimes twice, as well as participating in midweek road races and the very popular Parkruns. He has taken full advantage of this, frequently starting with a road race in the morning and a cross-country run in the afternoon!
Since reaching 1000 victories on 10th May this year, James has added another fourteen wins, and his total mileage is 84,930 miles, and he is lined up for a 5k road race this evening (Thursday, 28th).