FORMER English Schools international Mark Brown notched up his best road race victory when he claimed the scalp of Great Britain runner Stewy Bell in the Newcastle Airport 7K event.

The up-and-coming 22-year-old Morpeth Harrier broke away in the second mile to leave his Chester-le-Street rival trailing, crossing the finish line an emphatic 36 seconds ahead to win two return airline tickets to America.

Brown, who played a significant part in Morpeth's hat-trick of Northern 12-Stage Road Relay Championships the previous weekend, believes that he has finally put two years of injury problems behind him as he embarks on what he hopes will be a successful senior athletics career.

He said: "I kept getting injured and this is the first long spell I have had clear of any problems and I'm also in a good training group, which also helps.

"Now I'm hoping to get a few races in to get my confidence up."

He added: "I know that Stewy Bell is not at his very best but I'm delighted to have beaten him and that's the best I've felt in a race for a while. I thought I would stretch it out a little after the first mile and when no-one responded I just kept going.

"At first I thought I might have gone too early and because I never look behind me I didn't know if anyone was catching me."

Brown, runner up in the English Schools Cross Country Championships as a senior boy and National Cross Country Championships under-17 silver medallist, now plans to compete in the North-East Track and Field Championships 1500m and 5000m at Gateshead International Stadium next month.

Jarrow and Hebburn's Claire Smallwood kept up her run of road race victories by beating Chester-le-Street's Catherine Brennan by 17 seconds.

Now the 25-year-old North-East Cross Country Champion has her sights set on winning the region's 10K title at Saltwell on Sunday.

Senior Men (7K): 1 M Brown (Morpeth) 22 mins 4 secs; 2 S Bell (Chester-le-Street) 22.40; 3 A Toward (Morp) 23.05; 4 M Slesser (Jarrow and Hebburn) 23.08; 5 M Thompson (Gateshead) 23.13; 6 V Wilson (Belgrave) 23.23; 7 T Field (Sunderland) 23.33; 8 N Armsworth (Morp) 23.38; 9 P Johnson (Unatt) 24.29; 10 J Archer (Low Fell) 24.30. M40 W Watson (J&H) 25.53; M45 A Jenkins (Morp) 25.10; M50 I Richardson (North Shields Poly) 26.58; M55 M Walker (Gosforth) 26.28; M60 C Bolton (Elswick) 27.47.

Women: 1 C Smallwood (J&H) 25.36; 2 C Brennan (ClS) 26.34; 3 H Robinson (ClS W40) 26.51; 4 L Trainor (Durham City) 27.51; 5 A Hunter (J&H) 28.13.

l Former Great Britain junior international Stephen Hepples opened his track season with a comfortable 3,000m victory in the Anne Marie Readshaw Memorial meeting at Shildon, when he lapped ten of his rivals.

While the time of 8 mins 23.3 secs was 13 seconds outside his personal best the 22-year-old Loftus AC runner said: "I'm still on high training mileage and that's all right for my first track outing of the season.

"I have been doing endurance work and I intend to bring my mileage down over the next few weeks when I can start concentrating on getting my times down."

The recently-crowned North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League senior men's champion has his sights set on winning the AAA Under-23 5,000m Championship at Bedford at the end of June.

He said: "Last year I peaked far too early and I didn't finish the race.

"This time I will prepare a lot more carefully and hopefully I can run at my best."

In the meantime, Hepples is hoping to hone up his speed by winning selection for Great Britain in several Under-23 internationals.

Clubmate Catherine Hare, a Sports Science undergraduate at Loughborough University won the women's 3,000m in a time of 10.26.0, beating Richmond and Zetland's Louise Jackson by just over 20 seconds.

* Teessider Chris Tomlinson erased one of the longest standing records in British athletics with a magnificent long jump clearance of 8.27m in Tallahassee, Florida at the weekend - just three months after breaking both wrists in a freak accident.

The 20-year-old European Cup silver medallist, who moved from Mandale Harriers to join British Athletics League Division One club Newham and Essex Beagles, eclipsed the national record of 8.23m set by Lyn Davies in June 1968.

Tomlinson has been training in Florida for the past month with world triple jump record holder Jonathan Edwards and was taking part in his first competition since breaking his wrists in the gymnasium at Gateshead International Stadium in January.

The Great Britain international was working in the weights room when he lost his balance and the power lift bar crushed both wrists, which kept him out of action for six weeks.

The accident came as a major blow to Tomlinson, who had jumped a wind-assisted 8.19m last season, ruling him out of the European Indoor Championships in Vienna.

But he made up for the disappointment by pulling out a wonder-leap in the United States.

Before his record-breaking jump the 6ft 6ins Tomlinson had a legal best of 7.87m but his coach, Peter Stanley, who also advises Olympic Champion Edwards, thought he was capable of more.

Now Tomlinson is aiming to represent England in this summer's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

He said: "It's great to have broken Lynn Davies long-standing record and it has made me even more determined to jump even further.

"I know now that I can jump over eight metres on a regular basis and my aim now is to compete in the Commonwealth Games.