Durham City Harriers

Veteran Steve Marshall (V40) was the first club counter at the annual Saltwell Harriers road race. He had a fine run to finish 23rd in 32.12.

Other City athletes to finish were Steve Nesbitt 32nd, 34.40; Malcolm Heslop (V50) 60th, 3500; Alisdair Adams (V50) 85th, 36.29; vets team third; Val Hancock finished 128th in the mixed race but was first in the ladies Over 55 category in 39.24.

Meanwhile, at the Loftus Poultry run over eight miles, super veteran Bill McNeil ran very well to finish first in his O70 category in 58.28.

In the Morpeth to Newcastle road road 14.25 miles on New Year's Day, and reputed to be the oldest race in Britain, veteran Elwyn Baldwin (V50) was first scorer for the Harriers finishing 82nd in 1:31.55.

Other Harriers: Alan Rowell (V50) 109th in 1:34,37; Malcolm Heslop (V50) 115th in 1:34.51; Bob Brown (V45) 133rd in 1:36.69; Graeme Armstrong (V40) 222nd in 1:42.38; Gordon Bradley-Richardson (V50) 274th in 1:45.52; Joe Harker (V60) 355th in 1:51.31; Brian Brown (V50) 445th in 1:59.13; Glenn Malvery (V40) 470th in 2:02.31.

Newton Aycliffe

Peter and Sue Milburn flew the flag for Newton Aycliffe with their latest South African exploits over the recent holiday period. On a hot Boxing Day, Peter ran in the Tokai Forest 16k trail race along the foothills of Table Mountain to claim 15th place in a field of 750 runners, with a time of 1.02.04.

On the day before New Year's eve, despite having to get up at 5am, both ran the Fishhoek 15k multi-terrain race, which included hills and deep soft sand.

Peter managed 23rd place in an excellent time of 58.33, while Sue, despite her foot injury, finished 128th in 69.27.

Dave Middleton had a tumbling good time on New Year's day with his annual visit to the Captain Cook's fell race. Treacherous conditions caused him to attempt to defeat gravity down one of the tricky descents, but despite superficial damage he still completed in 45 mins.

Top honours over the holiday period went to club captain Paul Guy who managed an excellent fourth position at Ripon in the Jolly Holly Jog to finish in 36 minutes.

Mandale Harriers

It was six of the best for Mandale Harriers in the North East Counties Indoor Athletic championships at Jarrow.

Chris Tomlinson, world junior championships finalists at long jump, stormed down the 60m in 7.1 having achieved 7.01 in the semi-final last year. Under-17 champion Peter Vickers won the junior title in a speedy 7.15. Elaine Smith won the junior ladies race in 8.0 having been runner-up last season.

The best sprint performance came in the Under-13 age group from Richard Kilty who smashed previous record by 0.6 seconds, 8.4.

Mandale youngsters also won both Under-17 60m hurdles titles. Penny Boyd won the girls event with 9.5s while Anthony Bibby, the national indoor sports hall all rounder champion and British speedbounce record holder, won the boys race in 8.6 with his team mate Suote Nyananya just 0.1s behind.

Results - Senior men 60m A finals: 1 C Tomlinson (Mandale) 7.1 (7.0 semi); B finals B Meehan (Mandale) 7.1 (7.5 semi).

Junior men: 1 P Vickers (Mandale) 7.1.

U-17 men: 1 J Baines (Mandale) 7.4; 2 S Nyananya (Mandale) 7.5.

U-15 boys: B Wilson (Mandale) 7.9. B finals: 1 M Barwick (Mandale) 7.9; 2 C James (Mandale) 8.0.

U-13 boys: 1 R Kilty (Mandale) 8.4; 4 R Pallister (Mandale) 9.2. B finals: 1 D Purleef (Mandale) 9.0.

Junior women: 1 E Smith (Mandale) 8.0.

60m hurdles U-17 men: 1 A Bibby (Mandale) 8.6; 3 S Nyanaya (Mandale) 8. 7.

U-17 women: 1 P Boyd (Mandale) 9.5