ORGANISERS of one of Britain's biggest athletics meetings held in north Durham this week have hailed it a success and confirmed they want to return next year.

Leader of Derwentside District Council, Alex Watson, has indicated he will be pushing for the international cross-country meeting to return to Consett after the race was screened by television companies across Europe.

Derwentside council took on the race at a cost of about £20,000 after Durham City Council pulled out after staging the event for a number of years.

The race was shown live on BBC's Grandstand on New Year's Day and it was also broadcast in Italy, France, Portugal, Belgium, and across western Europe. Hundreds of people from North-West Durham turned up to watch the international running stars, and children from many of the area's primary schools took part in a fun children's race.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern also attended the event, as Eire wants to stage a world athletics championship next year.

Mr Ahern was meeting with leading members of the athletics community.

British number one Paula Radcliffe, of Loughborough, in Leicestershire, who beat world cross country gold medallist Derartu Tulu at the meeting, said she found the people of Consett very supportive of the event.

She said: "I would love to come back. I was the British runner and people were really supportive of me, and they were also really sincere. They were extremely nice and kept saying 'you'll come back won't you?', and I said I would love to.

"It was as well organised an event as any I have been to."

A spokesman from leading organising body Nova International praised the beauty of the countryside in the Consett district and hailed the massive media exposure for Derwentside before indicating the group would be happy to return next year.

However, he stressed that a decision on where the event will be staged would not be made until late in the year.

Councillor Watson said: "It was a tremendous success and the publicity for the area was unbelievable.

"There were a lot of famous names there, including the Irish prime minister who came to see his good friend Brendan Foster.