GREAT BRITAIN international Stewy Bell took another major step towards re-establishing himself as one of the North-East's leading road racers with an emphatic victory in yesterday's gruelling Derwentside 10.

But after fighting off a determined challenge from Welsh Commonwealth Games international Ieuan Ellis the 34-year-old Chester-le-Street AC runner stressed: "Things are going well- but I've got to be patient."

Bell's athletics career hung in the balance after he aggravated a back injury in last year's Flora London Marathon, and after over a year of regular physiotherapy treatment he feels he has turned the corner.

"I'm about 70 percent fit, but there is some way to go yet and I have to remember that I just can't go out and run the times I used to.

"It's been a long haul, but I'm getting there and I have just got to take things gradually."

Bell looked to be close to his best when he set the pace from the gun in yesterday's race, leaving everyone in his wake except defending champion Malcolm Price.

But the former Sunderland Harrier - now with Salford - was jet lagged after returning from a family holiday in Ibiza five hours earlier and was forced to drop out after one and a half miles.

This left Ellis, the first veteran home in this year's London Marathon, to give chase, and he gradually chiselled away at Bell's lead -100m at one stage - until he was on his rival's shoulder as they turned on to the main road to Consett approaching five miles.

Bell reacted with another fierce injection of pace and he built up a ten second advantage on the Elswick Harrier as he passed the six mile marker.

Ellis, however, wasn't prepared to throw in the towel, and he inched his way back until he was only ten metres behind the leader approaching the final mile.

But Bell, sensing the challenge, again dipped into his resources of stamina, to surge clear again and was 13 seconds ahead at the finish, clocking a creditable 53 mins 53 secs in what is acknowledged as Britain's second hardest ten miler.

Ellis said: "I caught Stewy twice but I couldn't get past him.

"But I'm pleased with my performance - we both wanted a hard race and that's what it was."

Bell will now race in Sunday's BUPA Great North Run, when he will be looking to clock a modest 68 minutes for the half marathon. But he has not abandoned his hopes of becoming successful over the classic 26.2 mile distance, despite the set back he experienced in London.

He said: "I don't think it was the marathon which was the trouble - it was going into a marathon with the injury.

"Once I get fit again and get a good spell of running under my belt I'm sure I'll do another."

Heaton Harrier Lynn Swanson notched up her first ever road race victory in a depleted women's section. The Newcastle's RVI doctor clocked 77 mins 31 secs to beat fellow veteran Sue Laws, of Derwentside, by over a minute.