FORMER Northern and North-East cross country champion Andy Caine led Scotland home in 18th place on a gale-swept and muddy Stormont Castle course in the fifth Reebok Cross Challenge in Belfast.

The Tynedale Harrier clocked 31 mins 30 secs, finishing 20 seconds ahead of Scotland team-mate John Newsom in the 9.8K race, won by little-known USA runner Dathan Ritzenheim.

Ritzenheim, 22, crossed the finish line in 29.26, beating off a Kenyan stampede which occupied the next four places ahead of England's first finisher, Mo Farah, who was sixth (30.04).

A strong contingent of North-East youngsters made the trip to Northern Ireland and the best performances came in the 5.9K under-17 men's race, won in 19 mins 10 secs by Kilbarchan's Conor McNulty.

Morpeth's North-East champion Jon Young was fifth (20.02), Gateshead's Sean Hall seventh (20.11) and Ross Floyd, of Morpeth, ninth (20.23).

Shildon's Khalil Thompson was 11th (14.19) in the under-15 4K race won by East Cheshire's Simon Horsfield in 13.10.

Nathan Shrubb, winner of the Morpeth 11K road race on New Year's Day, was 12th in the junior men's 5.9K race, while Darlington's Nigel Orr was 25th in the veteran's 5.9K contest.

In the 5.9K women's race, won by Ethiopian Etalemahu Kidane in 20 mins 26 secs, Chester-le-Street's former BUSA 10,000m champion Alyson Dixon was 25th (22.41), with Quakers' Julia Orr 33rd overall (23.23) and fifth junior home.

* The fourth DP Furniture Express North-East Harrier League meeting, due to be held at Chester-le-Street, was cancelled after the River Wear burst its banks and part of the course was flooded. The meeting is unlikely to be rescheduled, with the various championships being decided in the remaining two fixtures at Durham (February 26) and Prudhoe (March 19).

* British stars Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were no match for world champion Benita Johnson in the 51st Cross Internacional Zornotza in Amorebieta, Spain.

Butler and Yelling finished fourth and fifth as Johnson romped to a five-second victory in the six kilometre race ahead of Edith Masai, whose Kenyan colleague Alice Timbilil finished third.

Butler clocked a time of 22minutes 45seconds - 22secs behind the winner but four ahead of Yelling, who last month succeeded Paula Radcliffe as European champion.

Johnson, will be one of the star attractions at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country next Saturday, said: ''I ran comfortably for the first three kilometres and then I tried to leave the others but it was not an easy task.''