The final Sussex athletics family to be featured in the latest series are the Mulletts from Newhaven.
Bill Mullett had a Scottish mother and was born in Scotland on 13th November 1947 but later the family moved to Newhaven. He attended the Newhaven Secondary School where he showed considerable promise as an athlete and joined the Brighton Athletic Club, as did several others from the surrounding areas in the 1960s. This made the Brighton Club one of the top British young athletes’ squads, in England, at the time. It also saw several national and area young club team titles coming to Sussex. This group included Dave Welch who was later to become an editor of the Daily Telegraph.
At Brighton he came under the coaching wing of Terry Notman, who is still acting as a Sussex Marksman and later Roy Taylor followed by Chris Carter.
Bill’s first brush with athletic success came in 1964 when he finished second in the Sussex Schools Cross Country Championships. He then led the Sussex team home in the English Schools championships in a brilliant seventh place.
Come the track season he won the East Sussex Schools 880 yards title and then took second place in the county schools event but later in the season he set a new county youth 2-mile record in 9:54.3s, a record he improved to 9:51.0s in 1965 as well as finishing second in the County XC Championships after going off course when well in the lead. He won a silver team medal in the Southern Youths (U17) XC championships where he placed seventh. He improved this to sixth in the C.A.U Championships for Sussex.
There was a better cross-country season for Bill in 1967 when he won the county junior title and finished eighth in the Southern Champs but won a gold medal for his Brighton club in the team event, the first ever junior team title for a Sussex Club in this age group followed by 17th in the National junior XC and a fine ninth place in the C.A.U junior championship.
Bill continued to up his game in 1968 with another county junior title sixth place in the Southern, third place in the Scottish Championships, 12th in the English National and great fourth place in the C.A.U for Sussex. He also tucked the county senior three-mile title under his belt, took his first county 3,000m steeplechase crown and clocked his fastest 10,000m time of 29:42.3s.
1969 saw Bill’s first international appearances, after placing second in the South of Thames Senior XC Champs and seventh in the Southern. He finished third in the Scottish Championships which earnt him a trip to the first of three trips to the International Cross-Country Championships where he finished 54th at Clydebank.
In September he ran for the Great Britain team in the 3,000m steeplechase where he clocked a Scottish record time of 8:40.8s, a time that also stood as a Sussex record until Mark Rowland broke it in 1987. It was not until 2016 before his son, Rob, managed to run faster.
There was another trip to the World International XC Championships in 1970 at Vichy in France where he finished 25th, his best placing. After finishing a fine second in the Southern Championship. There was another third place in the Scottish Championships and his highest placing of 21st, as a senior, in the English National Championships having earlier in the season finished second in the South of Thames Senior event.
Bill was never a runner who would race every week but chose his races carefully and in 1971 a third place in the Southern and a good run in the Scottish Championships saw him make his third appearance in the Scottish team in the last of the World International XC Championships in San Sebastian where he finished 115th.
After 1971 the race became the World Cross-Country Championships and in 1977 he won the South of Thames senior cross country title at a time when the race was much more prestigious than it is today.
In the days when there were few road race championships, Bill was a runner to be carefully watched and probably his best road runs, apart from many sparkling relay runs were the high class Mitcham 15-mile (25km) open race when he finished second to Don Faircloth in 77:05s - a pace of inside 5 minutes per mile and quite an achievement some fifty years ago.
He also clocked a nifty 65:15s in the Barentin to Yvette half-marathon in France, a time that is the 11th fastest by a Sussex runner, one place ahead of then club mate Steve Ovett, and also clocked 2:22:35s marathon in Paris in 1981 which has only bettered by a dozen Sussex runners in the last forty years.
“As I got a little older” said Bill “I took to open water swimming and combined it with running and won the national and english aquathon titles in the 61-64 age group and also the national 3,000m indoor title as well and a Sussex Veterans M60 cross-country title in 2008.
Bill had met Jenny Davies when she came to University of Sussex (Brighton College of Education) in the early eighties and they married in Hornchurch in 1978.
Jenny Davies was born in Romford 26th November 1955 and went to school at the St Edwards C of E School before joining Ilford and then Havering A.C and had established herself, through the intermediate groups into the seniors, as a promising athlete before joining Brighton & Hove when she moved to Sussex.
Essex being much larger county than Sussex, population wise, and one of the strongest athletic counties in the country, has much stronger standards than in Sussex but despite this she collected several Essex and Essex Schools titles over 100 and 400 metres and through her parents became a member of the Welsh athletic squad making many appearances for Wales in international matches over 400 metres.
She won the Welsh championship in 56.9s in 1977 and won against Greece the same year in 57.1s. That year she also reached the semi-finals of the 400m of the British Indoor championships at Cosford in 58.1s.
In 1978 she finished second in the Welsh Commonwealth Games trials in 56.7s and also placed fourth over 800m in 2:13.5s. She was added to the Welsh Commonwealth Games training squad but unfortunately injury forced 
her to withdraw.
By 1979 she was now Jenny Mullett and took second place in the 800m Indoors at Cosford in 2:09.1s. In 1981 she made a major impact on the Sussex scene winning the county 400m title in 56.9s (a Championship Best performance) and later in the year setting a new Sussex Record when she clocked 56.1s. She followed this with 55.8s clocking at Southampton, a time that was to remain as the Sussex record until Brighton & Hove club mate Gabby Howell clocked 54.1s in 1998. In this same year she again donned the Welsh vest to clock 2:11.0 against Norway.
In 1982 she picked up another second place in the National Indoor 800m Championships in 2:11.7s and improved her CBP when retaining her county 400m in 56.4s and also collected another silver medal in the Welsh Championships in 57.6s.
Although virtually ruling the roost in Sussex over the one lap competition, the two laps were much tougher with the likes of club mates Suzanne Morley and Sonia McGeorge/Vinall, the Joyce girls and Debbie Peel from Crawley all sub 2min.10sec 800m runners. It was also very competitive in cross-country events with several other Sussex runners pressing for medals. Jenny however did chalk up some impressive runs in Sussex league and championship cross-country races and made the Sussex team for the National and Southern Inter County events.
The birth of Jenna in February 1985 followed a couple of years later of Robert put paid to her competitions although she continued running and in 2017, when visiting son Rob in America, she did win a W60 5km road race.
Jenna was born on 22nd February 1985, went to Seaford Head School and became a highly promising swimmer with the Lewes Club before taking a sports science course at Portsmouth University and gaining her degree. In her late twenties she took up road running including half and full marathon before moving on to triathlons and aquathons competing for Great Britain, in her age group, in the World Aquathon Championships in Chicago and then completing a half iron man triathlon in Switzerland.
Rob Mullett (Lewes) was born on 31s July 1987 and attended the Seaford Head School before joining Lewes Athletic Club and was coached by Dave Leach through from a complete novice until his international career. Although he was winning races and county titles in the U13 age group it was really not until he reached the U17 age group when he turned to the steeplechase that he really began to shine.
In 2003 he won both the Sussex County and Sussex Schools 1,500m steeplechase and finished fourth in the area championships having earlier qualified and finishing 98th in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships in Stanmer Park.
He stepped up to the U20 age group in 2004 and won another Sussex schools steeplechase title having again made the cross-country team for the English Schools in March. He raced in the U20 1500m in the county championships placing second.
2005 saw his best placing in the English Schools Cross-Country when he finished 37th. He won the Sussex Schools steeplechase in 6:06.36s and followed this with an eighth place in his final English Schools championships in 6:13.49s and second place in the Southern 2k s/c in 6:07.02s.
He made his first appearance abroad running, second claim for Enfield, in the “A” group at the European Junior Club event in Moscow in 2006. He won the 1500m chase in 4:06.88s. He had already won the Southern 2k chase in 5:59.58s and finished second in the A.A.A 3k chase in 9:21.30s and it was probably this run that highlighted his talent and what a prospect he was. He was also showing considerable speed on the flat and his clocking of 3:51.02s was the eighth f
astest by a British U20 of the year while his 8:32.62s was the fourth fastest 3,000m time.
In his first year in the U23 age group at St Mary’s College in 2007 Rob avoided the "chase" but did manage to finish seventh in the 3,000m flat in 8:22.13s.
2008 saw him take second place in the BUSF Indoor 3k in 8:32.37s but eventually led the Sussex rankings with 3:23.14i and in the BUSF Outdoor event he sharpened up with a 1:51.22s clocking for fourth place while he also placed third on the Sussex lists with 3:44.85s and a 1:50.47s in the 1500m and 800m events.
Transfer to the Butler University in Indiana in the autumn of 2008 saw his competitions coming early in 2009.
Most of his racing in 2009 was done in America and his 3:44.06s 1,500m and 8:22.13i 3,000m were the second fastest times clocked by a Sussex runner behind Lee Emanuel who was also racing in America. He did top the Sussex 3km S/C list with 8:53.5s.
In 2010 Rob clocked 4:04.63s when placing seventh in the NCAA Indoor Mile Championship behind winner Emanuel who broke four minutes with 3:59.37 to qualify for the final. Again he did most of his racing in Indianapolis including an 8:48.14s while in 2011 he improved his Chase time to 8:41.24s and was the fourth fastest British steeplechaser of the year.
In Olympic year Rob, at last, ran faster than his father had in 1969 when he clocked 8:31.6s for the 3k S/c in Los Angeles which saw him as the third fastest British steeplechaser but he was unable to repeat this sort of time when he came back home and although he ran in the European Championships Trials and finished third, a virtual dead heat for second place, in the UK Championships he did not get a place in the Olympic team.
2013 was not so good but he did manage to finish 11th in the European Cup at Gateshead. Unfortunately he was injured in mid race and did not race again seriously for the rest of the year though his clocking in Germany in May of 8:32.68s, his only steeplechase of the year, saw him the second on the British list. Rob steered clear of steeplechasing in 2014 but in 2015 he won the first of a hat trick of British steeplechase titles in 8:37.03s and ended the season with four sub 8:40 clockings at the top of the British ranking lists.
A Los Angeles clocking of 8:22.14s saw him head the British Rankings list in 2016 and he made the British Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro where he finished 12th in his heat in, ironically his slowest clocking of the year.
2017 saw an Achilles problem in February that to all intents and purposes put an end to his competitive career, as he could not wear track spikes and although he managed the odd road race his last serious race was in 2018 although he did win a 5k road race with his dog in 2019.
He is currently number two on the Sussex all-time 3,000m steeplechase list behind British record holder Mark Rowland sixth on the 5,000m list with 13:51.18s and eighth on the half-marathon list with 65:15s in 1977.
Bill owned and ran a Tool Hire business in Newhaven for many years and is now retired and lives in Seaford with his partner, also named Jenny.
Bill’s fastest times: 1,500m 3:48.2s in 1975. – 3,000m 8:05.2s in1974. – 5,000m 14:03.2s in 1975. – 10,000m 29:42.2s in 1969. – *10-mile Road 49.08s 1979. – Half-marathon 65:15 in 1977. *20-mile 1:43.45s 1973. – Marathon 2:22:35 in 1981. *Normal road distances before the Road Running boom.
Jenny started teaching at Tideway School in Newhaven before becoming an Education Consultant with the Brighton & Hove and Surrey Education authorities. She also acted as a Sussex Schools Team manager.
“I remarried in 2006 to Martyn Waller but he died in 2013 and then in 2014 I came to Spain to live and work in education but I have now retired from education” said Jenny.
Jenny’s best times are 200m 25.8 1982 - 400m 55.8 in 1981 and 2:10.1 for 800m in 1981 but she did clock 100 12.5 and 200m 25.7 in 1975 – 400 in 55.6 in 1978 and 800 2:07.9 in 1978 – 1500 in 4:57.4in 1980 – One mile in 5:17.4 in 1980 before she established her Sussex qualification.
Rob lives in America and with his partner Lisa Tomes from Kentucky and is the events manager at the Atlanta Track Club but is unable, because of injury, to continue a competitive athletic career.
Rob’s fastest times: 800m 1:50.47 2008 - 1,500 3:42.21 in 20210. - One mile 3:59.37 in 2015 – 3,000m 7:58.65i 1912. – 5,000m 13:41.75 in 2017. – 10km Road 29:20 in 2016. – 10-mile Road 49:33 in 2016. – 3,000m Steeplechase 8:22.42 in 2016.