Chichester's big athletics events celebrated - starting with a Priory 10k picture special

Runners in the Chichester area are fortunate to have a wide choice of events they can take part in – from the shorter-distance Corporate Challenge to the Midsummer five-miler, the Chichester Priory 10k and the revamped Half Marathon.

The roots of the top events stem from a meeting of minds of three gentlemen from different backgrounds but with similar interests back in the mid-1980s.

Graham Brooks, then editor of the Chichester Observer, was looking for a major sporting event to celebrate the centenary of the paper; Phil Baker, secretary of Chichester Runners, was seeking to enhance the reputation of the newly formed club by association with a quality endurance race, and Graham Jessop, of Chichester Round Table, was hoping to raise funds for community projects.

Their combined thinking resulted in the first Chichester Half-Marathon in 1987.

The great success of the Half Marathon also was possibly its death knell – the event became so successful and so large no-one was prepared to spearhead it.

After four years it disappeared from the calendar. But one of the instigators of the half marathon was, by 1990, a member of the Rotary Club of Chichester Priory and saw a gap in the programme.

When incoming president Colin Thorne approached Jessop for fundraising ideas, he suggested a road race. He wanted to promote a 10k and the Chichester Priory 10k was launched in February 1991.

See some pictures from Chi 10k races down the years in the gallery above, and don't miss this week's Observer for a feature-length piece on how the 10k started and has prospered since.