DEFENDING champions Sunderland will have it all to do to retain their trophy when they host the region's opening cross country fixture of the season at Farringdon this afternoon.

Last year the Wearsiders staged a dramatic victory in the senior men's four-stage relay event when their Great Britain international Brian Rushworth - then the reigning North-East cross country champion - overtook Morpeth on the anchor leg to secure victory.

But Sunderland will be without their star runner, who is suffering from a long-standing ankle injury, as they take on the leading clubs in what is the biggest event outside area championships and will be hard pressed to improve on their impressive record of 16 wins in 19 years.

The Wearsiders, however, take the opportunity to field one of their youngest-ever squads, with former North-East ten-mile champion Tim Field the captain.

The leading candidates for the A team are Mark Hood, Lee Browell, Patrick Martin and Richard Kemp - all young, up-and-coming athletes who would benefit from the experience of taking on some of the region's top senior cross-country runners, including leading athletes from Morpeth, Chester-le-Street and Gateshead Harriers.

Sunderland's over-40s will also be trying to retain their Veterans trophy, though they will be without their best runner, Dave Robertson, who was first in his age group in this year's Flora London Marathon.

The meeting will include races for all age groups, and for the first time - to encourage recruitment from Wearside schools - there will be new events for under-11 boys and girls over a one-mile course.

The meeting, at Farringdon School, will start with the primary schools race at 1pm, while the main event, the senior men's 4 x 1.8 mile relay, gets under way at 1.45pm.

* Former Mandale Harrier Martin Scaife and his Chester-le-Street clubmate Stewy Bell helped the North to victory in the Inter-Area match in the National 10K Road Race Championships at Cheltenham.

Scaife ran a best-ever 29 mins 59 secs to secure eighth place, while Bell (30.05) was 11th as the North, with Salford duo Neil Wilkinson (29.41) seventh and Andrew Jones (30.06) 12th, came out top.

The race was won by Auckland Castle 10K victor Julius Kimtai (28.49), who added the first prize to the £1,000 he won at Bradford two weeks earlier in the Inter-Counties 10K Road Race Championships.

* Britain's team captain Dwain Chambers saw his season end in disappointing fashion as he was beaten into fifth place in the 100metres at the ninth World Cup in Madrid last night.

The 24-year-old Londoner was unable to live up to his billing as favourite as he produced a sluggish display in the rain-hit La Comunidad Stadium.

Chambers' display was a severe blow for Britain's challenge as he was regarded as one of the bankers for a win.

But the European champion was never in contention for the £20,000 first prize as he clocked 10.16secs.

Nigeria's Uchenna Emedolu emerged the surprise winner for Africa in 10.06 from Commonwealth champion Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis, who clocked the same time, with Francis Obikwelu third in 10.09.

Chambers had been installed as favourite after new world record holder Tim Montgomery had pulled out of their showdown.

But Chambers was unable to repeat the form that saw him equal the European record of 9.87secs when finishing second to his United States rival in the Grand Prix final in Paris last weekend.

And there was disappointment for Ashia Hansen, competing for Europe, as the Commonwealth and European triple jump champion was beaten into second place.

Hansen's best effort of 14.32m was five centimetres behind Francoise Mbango of Africa in a competition interrupted by a torrential downpour.

Commonwealth champion Mick Jones, who took hammer gold in Manchester, finished eighth at La Comunidad Stadium to collect two points for the men's team.