SUNDERLAND Harrier Mark Kemp won the North-East 10K Road Race Championship, despite having to stop twice to tie his laces.

"I must have lost 20 metres each time," said the University of Northumbria student after winning a thrilling sprint finish with 19-year-old Jarrow and Hebburn rival Mark Slesser in Saltwell Park.

Kemp, 20, and Slesser left behind Morpeth Harrier Andrew Toward as the three juniors dominated the re-arranged race, which had to be cancelled in December after overnight snow.

The two leaders fought out a ding-dong battle as they raced shoulder-to-shoulder round the park lake as they approached the finish. And it wasn't until 20 metres from home that Kemp finally managed to get the better of Slessor to win by two strides.

"That's my first victory for over two years but I must admit I thought I'd lost it when Mark got in front of me coming round the lake," said Kemp.

"But I really wanted to win this one and I managed to pull out a little bit extra."

It was Kemp's first victory since he won the Durham Schools 2000m senior boys' cross country country title at Bishop Auckland in 1999.

He said: "I had a knee injury which keep me out for six months then I had Achilles trouble over the winter. I've just seemed to have had injury after injury.

"But now I'm training hard with an excellent group of athletes who really encourage one another to do well and I hope it will be the start of a good run for me."

It was the first time a junior athlete had won the North-East title, but the seniors were forced to take a back seat on the testing course, which included the notorious Chowdene Bank, where many ambitious athletes have come unstuck in the race in previous years.

The first senior home was fourth-placed Terry Wall, of Morpeth, but he was over a minute behind the two leaders, who were credited with the same time of 32 mins 7 secs.

Jarrow and Hebburn's Claire Smallwood, the North-East Harrier League cross country champion, claimed her first North-East road race title when she scored a comfortable victory over defending champion Alison Dixon, of Sunderland Harriers.

Now 25-year-old Smallwood, coached by Jimmy Hedley, who guided Steve Cram to three world records in 1985, has her sights set on winning the North-East 1500m and 3000m track titles next month.

Results - Men: 1 M Hood (Sunderland) 32.07; 2 M Slesser (Jarrow and Hebburn) 32.07; 3 A Toward (Morpeth) 32.46; 4 T Wall (Morpeth) 32.46; 5 M Smith (Unatt) 33.32. Team: Morpeth 12 pts.

Women: 1 C Smallwood (J&H) 36.11; 2 A Dixon (Sund) 37.54; 3 H Robinson (Chester-le-Street W40) 38.51; 4 K Reynolds (Aurora) 38.55. Team: Elswick 23 pts.

Cleveland-based junior international Catherine Hare will be hoping to pull out a top performance when the Commonwealth Games Triathlon Trials are held in Stockton next month.

If the 20-year-old Loftus AC member doesn't qualify for Manchester she believes she will have a great chance of being picked for the World Junior Championships in Mexico in November.

Hare, a sports science undergraduate at Loughborough University, underlined her strength by winning the final North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League senior women's race at Newton Aycliffe, while she was a runaway winner of the 3000m in the North-East's opening track and field meeting at Shildon.

Coached by her father, Tony, Hare feels she is making great strides as a triathlete, even though she is now competing mainly against Britain's best under-23s after topping her age-group.

"It is a lot harder now against older competitors but I think I've got a chance of making the World Junior Championships.