DURHAM CITY baker Terry Wall warmed up for this weekend's North-East Cross Country Championships with a runaway victory in the Norman Woodcock Memorial Road Race at Gosforth Park, Newcastle.

The 33-year-old Morpeth Harrier left his rivals after a mile and gradually extended his lead to cross the winning line nearly a minute ahead of clubmate Kirk Wilson.

Now Wall, who can look back on a string of local road race successes this year, is hoping to run well in the regional cross country championships at Darlington on Saturday.

His best placing was third but after clocking 30 mins 27 secs over the six miles at Gosforth he said: "I'm really looking forward to the championships. I'm in the best shape I've ever been going into the event."

Durham University undergraduate Michelle Holt was a comfortable winner of the women's race in the absence of defending champion Sheila Allen. The 20-year-old Sunderland Harrier had an 18 seconds advantage over Susanne Morton, of the host club, Elswick Harriers.

Men (6m): 1 T Wall (Morpeth) 30 mins 27 secs; 2 K Wilson (Morpeth) 31.20; 3 D Robertson (Sunderland M40) 31.25; 4 R Walker (North Shields Poly) 31.34; 5 P Besford (Gateshead) 33.14; 6 E Makin (Durham City) 33.15; 7 M Jones (South Shields M40) 33.16; 8 S Kelly (Wallsend) 33.19; 9 C Nichol (Teviotdale) 33.36; 10 G Harden (Sund M40) 33.52. M45 D Anderson (Wallsend) 33.56; M50 H Matthews (Elswick) 34.09; M55 G Hurst (Unatt) 39.11; M60 P Wright (Aurora) 41.07; M65 R Phillipson (Blaydon) 40.49. Teams: 1 Morpeth 16; 2 Sunderland 34; 3 Elswick 37.

Women: 1 M Holt (Sund) 36.25; 2 S Morton (Els W35) 36.43; 3 H Robinson (Chester-le-Street W35) 38.24; 4 C Bowman (ClS W35) 38.30; 5 S Laws (Derwentside W45) 39.46. W55 P Gold (Heaton) 46.16. Teams: 1 Sunderland 19; 2 Elswick 35; 3 Heaton 50.

* British number one Jon Brown had a disappointing run in the Fukuoka marathon, Japan, finishing in 25th place. His time of 2.18.55 was well outside the two hours 15 minute required to qualify for next year's Athens Olympics.