The Sussex men were blown off course as they faced the strongest ever winds at the Brooks Brighton & Hove A.C 10km Road race on Sunday morning and this resulted in what is probably the slowest winning time at least this century.
The runners had to battle into a south-wester that gusted into 40mph right from the start and the early stages saw the leading runners in tight groups of runners giving each other protection.
Before the half-way mark however they had turned and with the wind on their backs they were flying but there was no way they were going to make up for their battles.
Aldershot’s Irish International, Steve Scullion, who is a sub 30 minute man had moved clear of reigning champion Paul Whittaker from Southend and he was not going to be headed again although he finished some two minutes outside his personal best clocking 31:42.
Whittaker was well over one minute slower than last year clocking 32:07 while Alex Milne (Enfield) clocked 32:35 in third place.
The leading Sussex runner was James Westlake from Crawley who had a remarkable run in the conditions to finish eighth, knocking nearly one minute off his previous fastest time in 33:10.
The runners from Worthing however had a brilliant day with Emma Macready the first women to finish clocking 35:32 and three men making the top fifteen.
County 10,000m champion Daryl Hards placed tenth in 33:37, Jack Woods 14th in 33:54 and he was also the first U20 runner to finish while Martin Footman clocked 33:57 in 15th place.
Macready, a silver medallist in 2013, had tucked in with a group of men early on, managed keep pace with them, and finished more than half-a-minute ahead of second placed Bryony Proctor from Aldershot who clocked 36:08 and Leigh Lattimore from Harrow who recorded 36:15 in third place.
Helen Buller, another Worthing athlete just missed the medals placing fourth in 37:32.