TOP North-East road-racer Louise Noble aims to add to her impressive run of victories by retaining her crown in tomorrow's Raby Castle 10K.

The 26-year-old Sunderland Harrier shrugged off an ankle injury sustained in a fall at home to win last weekend's testing Pier to Pier multi-terrain seven-miler between South Shields and Roker - and she immediately signalled her intention to run at Raby.

Noble, who lives at West Rainton on the outskirts of Durham City, has blossomed over the last two years and is the current North-East road-race champion over the 10K and half-marathon distances.

She recently won the Blyth Valley and Tees Barrage 10Ks and is proving unbeatable in regional events against local rivals.

Noble said: "I had a bit of a scare when I fell off a bench in the kitchen at home and my ankle was pretty painful - my doctor said I'd twisted a ligament. But it didn't bother me in the Pier to Pier race and I'm looking forward to running again at Raby Castle."

With late entries again being accepted for the popular event the men's race looks wide open, with several leading contenders in another big field.

Two of the region's top 10K runners, Ian Hudspith and Steve Hepples, ran personal-best times in last weekend's Great Manchester Run.

Hudspith, a former AAA half-marathon champion, finished tenth in 29 mins 8 secs, equalling his pb from 1996, while Hepples, 18th, clocked 29.31, slicing one second off his best from 2004.

Hudspith's next big test will be in next month's Blaydon Race, where he finished an excellent third in 2003.

Shildon's newly-crowned North-East 3,000m champion Kate Avery will be a leading contender in this weekend's Northern Under-15/17 championships at South Leeds.

Commonwealth heptathlon champion Kelly Sotherton is hoping she has overcome a number of setbacks when she takes on world and Olympic title-holder Carolina Kluft at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Gotzis this weekend.

The 30-year-old takes on Kluft for the first time since they fought a neck-and-neck pentathlon battle before the Swede prevailed by the merest of margins at the European Indoor Championships in March.

The pair's close encounter in Birmingham almost saw Sotherton inflict a milestone defeat on Kluft for the first time in five years, until the Scandinavian hung on to win by just 17 points.

Now the Birchfield Harrier will be hoping to match that performance to gain a morale boost in the build-up to August's World Championships.