Derartu Tulu wants revenge over Paula Radcliffe after the thrashing she received at the hands of the British number one over a snow-covered course at Consett on Saturday.

There were no excuses from the double Olympic 10,000 metres champion and three-time World Cross-Country gold medallist - only praise for the winner after Radcliffe inflicted on her a humiliating defeat in the Great North Cross-Country.

''Obviously I have lost races before but never by such a long margin," said Tulu.

"I have never liked running in snow but there was no way I thought I would have finished so far behind.''

Tulu finished 75 seconds behind Radcliffe's winning time of 20 minutes 21 seconds in the 6km clash.

After analysing what went wrong Tulu, who had planned to race in only one cross-country meeting this winter before Dublin hosts the World Championships next March, radically re-arranged her competitive programme to bolster her ambitions and confidence for a fourth gold medal.

Tulu has accepted an invitation from Seville race director Juan Jaldon Fernandez to run in Seville on Sunday, January 14, where another thrilling contest against Radcliffe is anticipated.

The great rivals will meet again in Tourcoing, France, a fortnight later if satisfactory appearance fees can be arranged between promoters and the 28-year-old Ethiopian. Seville should not prove a problem - Fernandez has a 250,000-dollar budget.

Despite Tulu's dislike of the conditions, she took nothing away from the demolition job Radcliffe performed over four laps.

While her experienced opponents failed to come to terms with the testing terrain, Radcliffe motored like a snow plough up and down two steep hills on each circuit to record one of the best victories of her career.

It was an awesome performance from 27-year-old Radcliffe, who has been in brilliant form since the disappointment of being outpaced out of the medals over the final lap at the Olympics.

She finished fourth as Tulu, running a 60-second final 400 metres, achieved her second 10,000 metres success.

Radcliffe won October's BUPA Great North Run in a European record time of 67mins 07secs, then three weeks later walked away with the World half-marathon title in Mexico.

Savouring her win, Radcliffe said: ''I felt a gap develop and gradually it got longer. Cross-country is not like the track. When you get a slight lead like that you go for it.

''Psychologically it is good for you and keeps you going.''

Cautiously she added: ''This result doesn't bear any relevance to the world cross-country.'

l Former Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist Mark Hudspith will start hot favourite to win his club's big Fila Morpeth-Newcastle road race for the fourth time today. As usual entries have been received from all over the country for the 14.1-mile event, England's oldest road race, and over 1,000 runners are expected to line up for the start in the centre of the Northumbrian market town.

Defending champion Hudspith knows the demanding course better than anyone and even though he will not have his younger brother Ian - the 1998 winner - for company the 30-year-old Morpeth Harrier should lead the way to Newcastle Civic Centre, where the race is due to finish around 2pm. Last year Hudspith had a battle with former AAA Half Marathon Champion Malcolm Price before breaking clear with a mile remaining to win by 40 metres.

The main challengers are expected to be Dublin Marathon winner Simon Pride and Dave Cavers