Mullett shows Sheffield steel to make UK final

Forcing the pace from the start in his heat, Mullett (left) led until the final dash for home and, although he was squeezed back into fifth place '“ in a personal best of 3min 50.87sec '“ he went through to the final as the fastest loser.

In the final, however, his exploits of the previous day took their toll and he finished ninth out of the 10 finalists in 3:51.22.

Seaford's Jason Hussain was also in fine form in the 200 metres where he set a personal best of 21.98sec when placing second in his heat, and improved to 21.67sec in his semi final.

Unfortunately, this run only saw him finish in third place and he did not make the final.

Sussex Downs College's Matt Basford had what is probably his best run of the season when he led the Sussex Schools senior (Under 19) team home in the South East England Schools Inter-county match at Paddock Wood.

Basford has not managed to recapture his last year's form so far this season, he finished sixth in the Schools championships the previous weekend, but his running at Paddock Wood suggests that he may yet be peaking at the right time. Certainly, finishing 12th, in what is always a pretty high quality race, was a large step in the right direction.

Although the top three in the Sussex Schools event were all missing, Seaford Head's Fraser Weir, who finished tenth the previous weekend, produced a good run to finish 28th, the third Sussex runner home.

Sussex Down's Josh Burgess finished in 37th place, while fellow college students Ashley Williams (who has been having a tough first year in this age group) finished 58th and James Baurer 68th.

Roxie Blackwell was the only Sussex Downs runner in the senior girls' team but she had a good run to finish in 24th place, the fourth Sussex runner to finish.

Uplands athletes Megan Brickell and Henry Jarvis both chalked up excellent runs in the Intermediate (Under 17) age group races. Brickell was the second Sussex runner to finish, coming 12th and helping the Sussex team into a splendid second team place, while Jarvis was the third Sussex runner to finish, coming an excellent 11th and also helping the Sussex squad into second team spot.

Aaron Capon (Hailsham) and Anthony Rawbin (Northease) finished 56th and 57th respectively in the boys' intermediate event.

In the junior (Under 15) girls' race, where Sussex again finished second in the team event, Maresfield's Beth Kidger was the seventh Sussex runner home, finishing 31st while Nicole Taylor (Beacon) finished 38th, Maddy Smith (St Bedes) 39th, Megan Kidger 40th and Chailey's Simone and Dannielle Collins 41st and 57th respectively.

Tomorrow the final races in this season's Sussex Cross-country League are being held at the Plumpton Agricultural College with the first race starting at 12.30pm.