It is not that often that Sussex can celebrate National champions but for the second time in as many weeks a National title has come to Sussex.
Crawley’s Paul Navesey went to Scotland for his title to add to Brighton & Hove’s Nigel Gates National M60 cross country crown a couple of weeks back.
Navesey has had an excellent cross country season winning the Sussex League title and helping Sussex to their best ever team placing in the National Inter-counties cross-country championships.
Having shown up well in long distance road races he headed north to Perth to compete in the Anglo Celtic Plate 100km race as a member of the England squad.
This was Navesey’s first attempt at 100k but he took off at 7.00, from North Inch Park, on a cold, windy and dark morning, which seemed more like night time as the clocks had just gone forward, and quickly found himself acting the Pied Piper as he led the field and at the end of the first of the 30 plus lap race he was half a minute clear of his rivals.
Before half distance the Sussex athlete had built his lead to more than six minutes and he continued to romp away from the rest of the field eventually winning by nearly 13 minutes as he cracked the seven hour barrier in 6:58:47 to Welshman David Weston’s 7:11:47.
Scotland’s Robert Turner was nearly another six minutes back in third place and Navesey led the England team to victory in the Anglo Celtic Team plate.
Navesey said “It was a huge day of learning for me. My first 100km and I was very proud to be wearing an England vest. Road running is tough but that distance was totally new to me on the roads. I enjoyed the whole experience but it did hurt at times. It drew me in and roughed me up but I got what I went there for so I am pleased”
This impressive debut for the Crawley runner, which ranks him 21st on the British All time lists, should assure him of a place in the Great Britain team for the World Championships later in the year.