ATHLETICS

And Northern senior men's gold medallists Morpeth Harriers - third last year - slipped down to fourth place in the 12-Stage event.

The Cestrians, who became the first North-East women's team ever to win a national title at the end of February, followed up by switching their talents to the road and winning the Northern relay championship.

But their heady run of success came to an abrupt end at Sutton Park, where they found themselves pitted against the country's top - and bigger - women's clubs, going into the event with one of their leading athletes, Kathryn Waugh.

Chester-le-Street's hopes were boosted when mother-of-four Dianne Heneghan, their top runner, handed over the lead on the first leg. But they then slipped away and it was left to former North-East cross country champion Morag McDonnell to hoist the team from fourth to third on the final leg behind Manchester's Sale Harriers and powerful southern club Windsor, Slough, Eaton and Hounslow.

Former Wallsend Harrier and reigning regional cross country champion Sonia Thomas opened up for Sale, who went into the lead on the third leg and never looked back. Windsor came from 17th place and had to thank Great Britain international Hayley Yelling, who ran the fastest leg of the day, for taking them up from third into second.

Morpeth had hoped to better their best-ever third placing, achieved three times, but they were always chasing the leaders after starting the opening leg in 12th place.

Terry Wall lifted the North-East and Northern champions into fourth place on the fifth leg in the 50-mile relay and despite having the services of star runners, Mark and Ian Hudspith, were never able to climb into a medal position.

The men's title was successfully defended by Belgrave Harriers, beating Tipton, and former Chester-le-Street runner Michael Openshaw, the reigning North-East cross country champion, ran the second fastest long stage of the day when he opened in the lead for Birchfield, who eventually finished third.

Although Chester-le-Street's men's team could only finish 30th their top runner, Martin Scaife, clocked the fourth fastest long stage of just over five miles in 26 mins 6 secs, only five second slower than Openshaw, who represented Great Britain over 5,000m in the World Championships in Canada.

Chester-le-Street's Great Britain international Stewy Bell successfully defended his title in the Blyth ten mile road race, beating Michael Thompson, of Gateshead by over two minutes, with Low Fell's John Archer a further minute away third.

National 12-Stage Road Relay Championships (Sutton Coldfield)

Senior Men: 1 Belgrave 3:58:57; 2 Tipton 4:11:15; 3 Birchfield; 4:12:49 4 Morpeth 4:13:42. Fastest times - Long stage: 1 M McCarthy (London Irish) 25.48; 2 M Openshaw (Birchfield) 26.01; 4 M Scaife (Chester-le-Street) 26.06.

Women's National 6-Stage Championships: 1 Sale 1:41:00; 2 Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow 1:44:56; 3 Chester-le-Street 1:45:32 (D Heneghan 16.20, A Watson 18.18, C Bowman 18.43, R Brown 16.58, H Robinson 18.42, M McDonnell 16.31).

Blyth Ten Mile Road Race: 1 S Bell (Chester-le-Street) 50.42; 2 M Thompson (Gateshead) 52.47; 3 J Archer (Low Fell) 53.14. M40 L Atkinson (Morpeth) 54.31. Team: Morpeth 20 pts.

Women: 1 C Smallwood (Jarrow & Hebburn) 59.18; 2 J Nutt (Elswick) 59.18; 3 A Hunter (Elswick) 64.29. W35 K Bentley (Birtley) 66.55. Team: Jarrow & Hebburn 12 pts.

Shildon R & AC

The Shildon club made their annual pilgrimage to the Sheffield Open meeting at the Don Valley Stadium on Saturday, April 26. Warren Roberts, Matthew Hewitson, Natalie Cross, Kris Stephenson, Adam Rogers, Simon Hewitson and John Hewitson all recorded personal best performances.

Results: 3000m U15 boys, 1 Warren Roberts 9:58.8; U18 boys 1 Matthew Lomax 9:27.1, 7 Matthew Hewitson 10:27.4; senior men 10th John Hewitson 11:35.2; U15 girls 4th Abby Suffield.

100m: U15 girls, 11th Natalie Cross 14.5; U17 boys 13th Kris Stephenson 12.8; senior men 20th John Hewitson; U20 men 6th Adam Rogers;

800m: Seniors U13 boys, 2 Simon Hewitson 2:32.5, U15 boys Khalil Thompson 2L26.4, U20 men Stephen Brown 2:08.6, senior men, 7 David Best 2:14.6, U13 girls 16th Natasha Heslop 2:54.5.

200m: U17 boys 11 John Burns 25.4, U20 8th Adam Rogers 25.2.

400m, U17 boys 4th John Burns 57.1.

The club hosted the Anne Marie Readshaw Memorial Open track and field meeting at the Stadium 2000 on Sunday, April 13. The club had seven athletes missing who were representing Durham at the Mini Marathon at London. However, the ones who did compete provided some excellent performances.

Club results: U11 boys 60m, 1 Jordan Roberts 9.90, Scott Thornton 10.70; U11 girls 7th Laura Hewitson 10.60; U17 girls 6th Catherine Turner 13.70, 10th Gemma Morgan 14.30.

100m U17 boys 5th Kris Stephenson 13.50; Senior men 6th Adam Rogers 12.60.

200m, U17 girls 4th Gemma Morgan 28.80; Senior Men 5th Adam Rogers 26.60.

600m: U11 girls 6th Laura Hewitson 2:14.10; U11 boys 3rd Scott Thornton 2:04.6,. 4th Jordan Roberts 2:04.6, 12th Jonathan Griffith 2:21.2, 17th Stephen Ferguson 2:40.7.

800m: U13 girls 6th Natasha Heslop 2:56.7; U13 boys 1st Andrew Cummings 2:33.1, U15 boys, 8th John Archer 2:32.5; Senior men 3rd Paul Best 2:07.1, 4th STephen Brown 2:13.8, 5 David Best 2:18.0.

3000m: U17 boys 1st Matthew Lomax 9:22.1, 7th Matthew Hewitson 10:41.8, 9th Jalal Thompson 11:20.5; Senior men 8th John Hewitson 11:53.7.

Long jump: U11 boys, 1st Jordan Roberts 3.46m.

Middlesbrough AC

THE club's youngsters were in top form in the Gateshead Harriers Open meeting at Jarrow. Dean Daniel followed up his win in the U18 by setting two personal bests in the U17 age group . He clocked 10.8 for 100m and 21.9 for 200m winning by two seconds.

His training partner Louis McElwee double winner at the North of England U15 indoor championship completed the same double with 11.6 and 24.0. Emma Payne won the 200m with 2.69 and was runner up over 80m hurdles.