2026 SUSSEX ROAD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sun 13th September
Preston Park, Brighton, BN1 6SD.
Timetable
1030hrs – U12 girls/boys
1110hrs – U14 girls/boys
1150hrs – U16 girls/boys
1230hrs – U18W/U20W/SW
Arriving by train
1330hrs – U18M/U20M/SM
1430hrs – F40/F50/F60
1530hrs – M40/M50/M60
Entries close at midnight on TBC. Entry link – https://runbaseevents.eventrac.co.uk/e/sussex-road-relay-championships-12812
Preston Park train station is 10min walk to the start/finish.
Brighton train station is 15min walk to the start/finish.
Arriving by car – There is limited paid street parking available to the north & east of the park. We would advise
travelling by train if possible.
Number Collection
Team managers should collect their teams bib numbers from the black gazebo located adjacent to
the start/finish.
Baton Collection
First leg runners will be given their teams baton prior to each race. This should be returned to race
officials by the final leg runner.
Presentations
The top 3 teams in each category will be presented immediately after each race.
Results
Team results will be live to view on the day.
Finalised results including athlete names will be published the week after the event.
DATA PROTECTION:
For eligibility to compete, athletes provide personal data including a DOB, club affiliation, England Athletics registration number, contact information. This data is held on our system as a record of performances (CBPs, records). It is also used as a way of providing information on future events etc. unless it is requested that this information is removed, by emailing: matthews2000@live.co.uk. Removing this information would mean any records set will not appear on the Sussex AA website/ in literature. Furthermore, your result would not be published on the Sussex AA website, on the rankings website Po10 and in Athletics Weekly. Also, we would not be able to provide County Team Managers with your contact details for selection for other competitions.
Read the full Sussex AA Privacy Policy HERE.
CLEAN SPORT:
All participants (including athletes and athlete support personnel) in any licensed event are bound to UK Athletics’ anti-doping rules and must make themselves familiar with these rules. Organisers of licensed events are expected to cooperate with UK Anti-Doping with regard to any code-compliant anti-doping investigations and proceedings linked to their event or participants in their event, and to include the following statement regarding anti-doping compliance, provided by UKAD, within their event registration process:
“An entrant shall be deemed to have made himself/herself/themself, familiar with, and agreed to be bound by the UKA Anti-Doping Rules and to submit to the authority of UK Anti-Doping in the application and enforcement of the Anti-Doping Rules. The UKA Anti-Doping Rules apply to entrants participating in the sport of Athletics, for 12 months from the date of entering the event, whether or not the participant is a citizen of, or resident in, the UK.”
These highly competitive and very enjoyable races have been an annual feature of the Sussex athletics scene in their present format since 1990. There had been a history of fairly regular road relays prior to this, however, initially as “challenge matches” (for men only!). These were between the likes of Horsham Blue Star and Brighton & Hove AC, and involved running the rather arbitrary distance between Horsham and Brighton along the main road.
This was extended to several other clubs from time to time and became recognised as a County Championship. However by the end of the 1970s it was clear that the increasing volume and speed of traffic made this rather too dangerous a venture and it was, sadly, discontinued.
It was in 1990 that the concept became a formally designated County Championship around a specified course and the event, as we now know it, was inaugurated. In both 1990 and 1991 the lap was around the Goodwood Motor Racing circuit, an approximate 2.4 mile lap, that was the same for all ages, although the juniors ran a straight race rather than a relay. The lap was fairly flat and fast and was totally traffic free. It also had ample room for socialising before and after races as well as providing the diversion of light aircraft coming and going to and from the airstrip. Here it stayed for just two years but it became difficult to hire the venue again on the same weekend each year so for the sake of continuity in the county calendar it was moved to Alexander Park, Hastings, and then to Christ’s Hospital in 1993. After Covid a new venue was needed and the races moved to Preston Park, Brighton, where they are currently held.
Relays, of course, test not just the ability of individual runners but the strength in depth of a club’s resources. It is not unusual for a team leading after one lap to move rapidly back down the field as others forge ahead with stronger later runners. Awards each year go to the first three teams as well as the three fastest individual runners in each age group and, although it is not surprising that the larger Sussex clubs have featured prominently, the awards have been well spread over most of the county clubs over the years.