Gateshead Harrier Lauren Beales set a UK all-time hurdles record and two other young athletes scored record-breaking doubles in the North-East Track and Field Championships at Gateshead International Stadium.

Beales, 12, competing in the opening track event, the under-13 girls' 70m hurdles, clocked 11.15 seconds, beating the championships record of 12.04 secs set in 2011, and also erasing the previous best electronically-timed UK record of 11.17 secs, set in 1995 in Birmingham by Anne-Marie Massey.

In near perfect conditions, Crook schoolboy Markhim Lonsdale and another Gateshead Harrier, Rachel Highfield, also shattered previous championship best performances, each in two events.

Lonsdale, 14, who quit Gateshead to join his local club, won the under-15 boys' 1500m in 4 mins 10.05 secs, improving the previous mark, set in 1987 by Wallsend's Ian Knox, by a huge 4.2 secs. He then went on to erase another long standing record, set in 1975 by Darlington Harrier Andrew Lawrence, in the under-15 800m, clocking 1 min 59.19 secs, an improvement of two seconds, to land his 12th track gold medal at the championships in four years.

Highfield, 17, won the opening-day junior 200m in a championship-best time of 24.92 and 24 hours later erased the 100m record with a superb personal-best 12.16, slicing nine hundredths of a second off the previous best, set in 2003.

Another Gateshead Harrier, Rebecca Liddell, also found herself on the record sheet with her personal-best 14.18 secs winning the senior women's 100m hurdles, while Birtley's 16-year-old North-East cross country champion and Junior Great North Run winner, Lydia Turner, also set a championship record with a solo run to clock 9 mins 50.95 secs in the under-17 women's 3,000m, an improvement of over 11 seconds on Kate Avery's 2007 record.

While the records were tumbling on the track, only one was broken in the field events on the opening day, when Mandale's Charlie Myers added one centimetre to the five-year-old under-17 pole vault mark, clearing 4.40m.

Unattached Mike Jeffries won yesterday's Raby Castle 10K in 34 mins 23 secs, beating Quakers' Michael Joyeux by 87 seconds, with Hartlepool Burn Road Harrier Dave Wilson in third place (35.58). The women's race was won by Birtley's Tracey Millmore (39.32), with Sunderland Harrier Michelle Avery runner-up (41.36) and Harrogate junior Laura Woodhall third (43.01).