SUNDERLAND Harrier Brian Rushworth, preparing for the defence next month of his British Veterans' crown, completed a hat-trick of victories in the North-East Veterans Cross Country Championships at Whitley Bay.

The 42-year-old Wearside lecturer was still feeling the effects of his efforts in the previous week's North of England Championships at Consett, where he finished 35th after losing a shoe and a probable top-ten placing.

He adopted a comfortable pace before pushing to the front on the second of the three laps in the 9.6K event to win by 12 seconds in 30 mins 11 secs from clubmate Dave Robertson, a previous winner of the London Marathon over-40 title.

Third place went to Wallsend Harrier Paul Merrison, a further 45 seconds in arrears.

Rushworth said: "I had to work on the second lap to get to the front and even then Dave pushed me hard on the last lap - he was very strong.

"I still felt a bit tired from the Northern Championships last week but I'm delighted to have retained my title."

Rushworth, who won the North-East men's cross country championship a record ten times, will defend his British title at Bangor, Northern Ireland, on March 12.

The women's 6K race was won by over-40 Elvet Strider Donna James, who clocked 23 mins 28 secs to beat the first over-35, Debbie Hales (Durham City) by 35 seconds, with another Elvet runner, Fiona Sheldon - winner of the over-45 category - in third place in 24.37.

Results - Over-40 (9.6K): 1 B Rushworth (Sunderland) 30.11; 2 D Robertson (Sund) 30.23; 3 G Rose (Northumberland Fell Runners) 31.40. Over-45: 1 P Merrison (Wallsend) 31.08; 2 A Dent (Blaydon) 32.06; 3 F Smith (Saltwell) 32.14. Teams: 1 Sunderland 34; 2 Wallsend 75; 3 North Shields Poly 102.

Over-50: A Jenkins (Morpeth) 32.11; Over-55: C Dentice (Morp) 32.21. Teams: 1 Morpeth 64; 2 Elswick 93; 3 Low Fell 179.

Over-60: R Wilson (Sund) 38.16; Over-65: W Ryder (Morp) 36.01. Team: Morpeth.

Over-70 (6K): I Barnes (Darlington) 25.47; Over-75: B McNally (Durham City) 29.28; Over-80: J Caddy (Middlesbrough & Cleveland) 35.05.

Women (6K) - Over 35: 1 D Hales (Durham City) 24.07; 2 Y Thiru (Gosforth) 25.55; 3 C Bruce (NSP) 27.38. Over-40: 1 D james (Elvet) 23.28; 2 L Marr (Tynedale) 25.51; 3 A Knott (Chester-le-Street) 26.15. Over-45: F Shenton (Elvet) 24.37; Over-60: C Lee (Gosforth) 29.02; Over-65 K Stewart (NSP) 30.10.

* North-East athletes scored a rare double in yesterday's high-class Alsager 5-mile road race near Stoke when Morpeth's Nick McCormick won the men's event and another Lindsay Dunn-trained runner, Morag McDonnell, took the women's crown.

McCormick clocked a rapid 23 mins 40 secs to beat seasoned Great Britain international Chris Daves (Telford) by 11 seconds, leading Morpeth to team victory with Martin Scaife (7th) and Tom Ranger (10th).

McDonnell had a 23-second advantage over Chester-le-Street clubmate Alyson Dixon, with Northern Cross Country Championships runner-up Gemma Phillips (Kendal) third.

* Great Britain international Stephen Hepples switched from indoor athletics to cross country yesterday, winning the penultimate North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League meeting at Stockton.

The Redcar-based Newham and Essex Beagle beat North York Moors AC's Paul Lowe by 29 seconds over the 9K, with senior men's championship leader Rob Cole (Middlesbrough Mandale) third.

The women's race was won by Darlington's North-East champion Bernadette Taylor, who beat international race-walker Johanna Jackson (Middlesbrough and Cleveland) by 15 seconds, with Quakers' Dawn Richardson third.

* World champion Jason Gardener shook off an upset stomach to win the 60 metres in the Leipzig International 2005 meeting.

Gardener, whose time of 6.56seconds equalled the meeting record, finished well clear of Marc Blume and Demario Wesley.

The German, who in Gardener's absence took away his title in Erfurt on Friday, clocked 6.67secs with Wesley finishing in 6.71secs.

The 'Bath Bullet' won almost at his leisure in the same German arena where for the past two years he has been crowned European Indoor Cup champion.

Then he revealed he almost pulled out of the meeting after being sick.

He said: ''I felt a little better this morning but decided I would only run in the main race.

''I had a great start and with two-thirds of the race over I knew I was going to win. Everything went perfectly.

''It's good to start with a 6.56 which is what I did here last year and then I almost immediately got down to 6.46.''

He warned: ''Given I am still off-colour I know there is plenty more in the tank and I expect to get faster in the next few weeks. It's just a case of chipping away as I have done in previous years."