TYNESIDE policeman Paul Reed opened his outdoor season in fine style last Saturday with a comfortable shot putt victory in Shildon R and AC's first open track and field meeting at their new £1m stadium on Sunday, writes FRANK JOHNSON.

The 38-year-old Great Britain international, who has won over 30 North-East Championships gold medals, has decided to concentrate more this summer on the shot instead of his main discipline, the discus, and the region's newly-crowned indoor champion was delighted with a throw of 15.87m, winning the event by more than three metres.

"It's 84 centimetres further than I have thrown so far this winter and it is very encouraging," said the Border Harrier.

"I intend to stay on heavy training until the end of May to see how it goes - I have never trained specially for the shot so there should be room for improvement.

"I don't know what will happen to my discus, but it should not suffer too much."

Reed's best shot putt - 17.04m - dates back to 1988 and the national police champion feels that he can throw further using the spin technique.

He will compete in the shot in tomorrow's Cyril Elliott Memorial meeting at Clairville Stadium, where he has recorded his two best throws.

The meeting at Shildon was a huge success, with over 300 athletes taking part.

Gateshead Harrier Craig Glanville, who won four under-15 titles in this season's North-East Indoor Championships, was in sparkling form.

The 14-year-old English Schools Championships 400m bronze medallist won the 100m (11.7 secs), shot put (10.58m) and long jump (5.48m).

Clubmate Titi Ameobi - 16-year-old sister of Newcastle United striker Shola - was a comfortable winner of the senior women's 100m (12.4 secs).

l Morpeth Harrier Michael Morris scored a clear-cut victory in Sunday's 19th annual Wallsend Road Race.

Morris broke away from Catterick-based Army runner Rob Leach with just over a mile remaining to win by 24 secs.

The women's title went to Aurora's Karen Reynolds, who won a hard-fought tussle with Chester-le-Street veterans Heather Robinson and Caroline Bowman.

Results - Men: 1 M Morris (Morpeth) 30 mins 59 secs; 2 R leach (Army) 31.23; 3 C O'Connell (Morp) 31.56; 4 R Hand (Durham City) 32.22; 5 J Archer (Low Fell) 32.26. V40 G Robinson (Chester-le-Street) 34.01; V45 L Atkinson (Morp) 32.33; V50 M Heslop (Dur C) 39.10; V55 M Walker (Gosforth) 36.26; V60 J Harker (Dur C) 44.32; V65 I Barnes (Darlington) 39.03.

Women: 1 K Reynolds (Aurora) 39.05; 2 H Robinson (ClS V35) 39.11; 3 C Bowman (ClS V40) 39.33.

l Newly-crowned English National cross country champion Mike Openshaw tested himself out on different terrain when he won Sunday's Mandale Harriers 12-mile beach race at Redcar.

The former Chester-le-Street runner, who now competes for Midlands club Birchfield, beat Brian Stephenson (Quakers) by over two and a half minutes. Darlington veteran Alison Raw won the women's race with nearly ten minutes to spare.

Elvet Striders

Striders were back on the race scene at the Enron Redcar and Cleveland half marathon, the race taking place on a new course because of the foot-and-mouth restrictions. Despite the cold and damp weather all the runners had a good day. On form Fiona Shenton had a brilliant run, crossing the line in 1.25:36 and was the first Strider back for the club.

Other times: Roz Layton 1:34:56, KL Bramley 2:20, Jean bradley 2:21, Jill Hall 2:20, Barry Evans 1:38:10, Mike Elliot 1:59.