Darlington Harriers

CLUB chairman Robin Rutherford completed the gruelling Everest Marathon in a time of seven and a half hours.

The event is run every 18 months and monies raised go to the Everest Marathon Fund, which helps with health and education projects in the villages of the Himalayan foothills. The race is run from the old Everest base camp at Gorak Shep at 17,500 feet to the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazarr over some of the worst terrain imaginable.

One of the biggest problems was surviving the three week trek to the start in good health and a number of the fancied runners succumbed to altitude sickness or illness prior to the event.

The race started at 7am, with a temperature of -10c, but the biggest problem during the day was that of dehydration, which caused a number of people to fall by the wayside as temperatures increased.

Rutherford was lucky to survive the event unscathed without even a blister or sore feet, but he says that the whole experience was so demanding that he doubts that he will return, despite having enjoyed it immensely.

He is now preparing a slide show and talk, about his experiences and any group or club interested in the presentation can contact him on 01325-380560

Club members competed in the North-Eastern Cross Country Championships held at Summerhill, Hartlepool, on a tough hilly and extremely muddy course.

Results: Senior men 12km: 31st Nigel Orr 45.59, 47th John Best 48.03, 76th Martin Grainger 50.36, 82nd Paul Kelly 51.22, 136th Paul Smith 56.07, 157th Robin Rutherford 57.49, 158th Steve Hutchinson 58.09, (from 206).

Team: 10th (from 18).

Senior women: 10th Alison Raw 32.41.

Under-15 Girls: 29th Natasha Springett 18.31, 46th Jenna Read 20.25.

Under-17 Women: 14th Georgina Rutherford 21.42.

Under-10 Men: 14th Simon Rutherford 40.16.

Under-15 Boys: 27th Daniel Purdie 15.42, 40th Andrew Smith 16.39, 58th Gary Johnson 19.11.

Under-13 Boys: 62nd Jamie Rutherford 18.20.

l Harriers are supported by Cleveland Bridge UK Limited and train at the Eastbourne Sports Complex on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30pm.

l The Northern Cross Country championships are to be held at Witton Park, Blackburn on January 27.

Newton Aycliffe AC

Greenfield School, usually associated with the arts, had its best day for many a year in the Schools Cross-Country Championship for year seven students.

The dedication of the PE staff, giving up lunch time for coaching, paid off with the Greenfield girls taking first, third and fourth places. The Willington (Parkside) course proved to be a real test of character with Natalie Cross stealing the race, powering up the final hill to win by a few metres. Close behind were Charlotte Jarps in third and Kirsty McIntosh in 4th to produce an excellent team performance.

The North-Eastern Cross Country Championships at Hartlepool saw treacherous underfoot conditions, despite this Aycliffe still turned out eight runners and finished an outstanding 16th place overall in the region.

Results: Peter Milburn (47 mins) and club captain Paul Guy (48) showed the way, both finishing inside the top 50. Andrew Lawrence was the club's next runner in 56 mins followed by Ian Monroe 59 mins, Steve Corner 59 mins, Mike O'Sullivan 60 mins, Dave Middleton 61 mins and Trevor Needham excelling in the mud also 61 mins.

In the Senior Ladies race, Carol Moss was in devastating form to take ninth spot ahead of Sue Milburn 27th and Anne McLoughlin 44th. The team finished in seventh place overall.

Elvet Striders

At the north eastern counties crosscountry championship at Hartlepool on a very testing7.3k course Elvet strider Judith Battersby put in a fine performance to finish 11th place with a time of 32:50, next lady was Jan Young 37th place and she clocked 38:27, Rebeca Adams came back in 38th place with a time of 38:31.The Striders ladies team were sixth overall. The mens race was over a distance of 12.3k the course being very muddy with plenty of steep hilly sections to test the legs, a total of 206 runners took part . First male strider back was Andy Adams in 100th place ran in 52:30, Conrad White was 156th ran in 57:46. The race was won by Brian Rushworth for a record 10th time.