THOUSANDS of young athletes were given a treat last night from their favourite pop stars as thanks for entering the Junior Great North Run.

A star-studded line-up was hosted by CBBC presenters Konnie Huq and Adrian Dickson, at the Gateshead International Stadium. The CBBC Great North Party featured top names including Atomic Kitten, Dannii Minogue, Javine, D-Side, Abs, Maria Wilson and Blazin Squad.

All entrants to the event were given two free tickets.

The party will be broadcast after the Junior Great North Run on the CBBC Channel between 6pm and 7pm.

The junior event has attracted a record 6,000 entries and event organiser Matthew Turnbull, of Nova International, said: "We had to close entries for the run - the biggest junior event in the UK - in July when we reached our maximum capacity of 6,000."

He said the run's growing popularity had raised hopes of fostering a new crop of champion distance runners in time for the 2012 London Olympic Games if the bid is successful.

Today's 4km event, which is filmed live by CBBC, starts at 3pm on the Newcastle side of the Millennium Bridge.