Training exercise turns out to be a winner for Fareham long distance runner Jack Oates on scenic South Downs 50K course

The 26-year-old run enthusiast was the only entrant to post a time under the four-hour mark as he breezed through the 129 field.

Incredibly, Oates was using the South Downs 50k, which begins in Falmer and finishes in Eastbourne, taking in the scenic Sussex coast, as a training event to prepare for bigger upcoming goals including the Snowdonia 50k and the Dorset Giants Head Marathon later this year.

Yet it turned out to be the perfect fine-tuning exercise. with his time of 3hrs 48mins 30secs proving more than sufficient to make it back home first.

Oates, who has previously won the Snowdonia and Isle of Wight Marathons, said: ‘I've had quite an up and down (time) injury-wise and I've got a few things coming up that are more my goal race. That (South Downs 50K) was more like a b (back-up), training-type thing.

‘(At the) start of next month I've got a 50km in Snowdonia so that's more the goal. The week before that I'm doing the Giants Head Marathon in Dorset with my dad.

‘I went out at the front, I went out to push the pace to see what was happening. I wanted to take it out quite hard to see who stayed with what kind of pace. I was doing alright until mile 24 then it went onto the Seven Sisters and we came back on the coast path.

‘The most cruel part was about two miles before the end, going down this hill, you could see Eastbourne - I thought that's great I've only got to go down the hill - that was only in the 100km (event). If you were in the 50km you had to go back on myself to go back down the hill so that was quite soul-destroying!’

Oates came home more than 10 minutes before second-placed finisher Paul Russhard (04:01:22), while Ajay Hanspal completed the top three (04:04:27).