BIRTHDAY boy Terry Wall made it a double hat-trick of road race victories in the space of five days with a runaway win in yesterday's Newton Aycliffe 10K.

And the 35-year-old Sunderland Harrier admitted afterwards he thought he was destined for second place after losing twice recently on the track to Scarborough's Ricky Wilson, who was trying to add to his success in this month's York 10K clocking 31 mins 24 secs.

But Wall, who won the Sunderland in the Parks race at Ryhope in midweek, handled the hot, muggy conditions better than his 21-year-old rival and stormed away to win by 55 seconds in 32.12.

"When I saw Ricky in the race I thought I was running for second place," he admitted.

"But after 4K I sensed that he was breathing worse than I was so I put in a couple of bursts. He didn't look too clever so I thought I would give it a shot and I managed to get clear.

"I still wasn't sure of myself and I wondered if I'd gone too soon. But I kept on going and I'm delighted to win for the third year in succession - it's a nice birthday present.

"I'm chuffed to have beaten Ricky - the lad's only 21 and has a very bright future ahead of him."

Morpeth Harrier Aiveen Fox led Durham University to team victory, setting a new record of 35.47 in the women's race.

The 21-year-old Northern junior cross country champion beat the North-East senior women's cross country champion, Bernadette Taylor, of Darlington, by nearly two minutes and clipped 79 seconds off Sheila Allen's four-year-old course record.

Fox, who won last month's Raby Castle 10K in a personal-best 37 mins 11 secs, also improved her fastest time.

She said: "When I won at Raby Castle I'd just finished my exams and I hadn't trained very hard. I've stepped up my training since and I'm now in much better shape."

* Redcar's Johanna Jackson retained her North of England 5000m race walking title in a time of 24 mins 50.38 secs in Manchester, while clubmate Ben Wears won the 3K walk in 14:46.33.

Other North-East winners: Jared Deacon (South Shields) 400m (52.90 secs), Gavin Massingham (Sunderland) 800m (1:55.85), Nisha Desai (Morpeth) 800m (2:08:00) and Julia Straker (Morpeth) triple jump (11.64m).