FORMER Great Britain international Stewy Bell was a comfortable winner of his club's Chester-le-Street 10K at the Riverside yesterday - after letting a group of runners shoot off into an early lead.

The 36-year-old prolific road racer was content to bide his time, having planned to run a fast final four miles and he whizzed past his rivals towards the end of the first of the two laps and ran home a winner by almost half a minute from Sunderland's Steve Potts in a time of 32 mins 31 secs.

Bell, who has been one of the region's most consistent performers over the last decade, decided to use the race as part of his preparations for this Saturday's Northern 12-Stage Road Relay Championships in Bolton, where he will be the lead runner for Chester-le-Street.

Bell said: "I did a 15-mile training run yesterday and I wanted to run a fast final four miles today.

"That was my plan and I let the early leaders go. I looked at my watch and after 11 1/2 minutes I decided to go off hard - I knew I could run the last four miles quick and it worked out okay."

The early leader, former Chester-le-Street runner Neville Carr, who now runs for Birtley club Aurora, built up a 50 metre lead after 2K, but was quickly reeled in when Bell hit the accelerator, fading to fourth place.

It was Bell's first victory over the Riverside course, having finished runner-up to Sunderland's Mark Hood last year.

The women's winner was Durham University's Olwyn Walwyn, who also runs for her home town club, City of Norwich. She quickly took command over the 5K circuit, beating Sunderland junior Michelle Holt by 17 seconds.